


721 Fifth Avenue

by Skarla



Series: Tony's Robot Army [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Bucky Barnes's Metal Arm, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Skycycles, Tony's robot Army
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2019-09-24 03:17:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 25,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17093021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skarla/pseuds/Skarla
Summary: Tony Stark is a man of many faces; stressed, a little manic, overly fond of smoothies and kinder than anyone Bucky has ever met, although he hides it well.  He's not quite sure why no one else is providing the support and companionship that the man is quietly desperate for, but it's no hardship to step up to the plate.  He's always had a thing for scrappy underdogs after all.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is set post CA:TWS and post IM3. (2014 in the MCU timeline). However, this will be Fraction's Hawkeye rather than MCU Hawkeye because I'm sorry but I cannot get on board with a secret wife suddenly introduced with absolutely no warning. In my little marvel-verse, Laura is Barney's wife. I'm not even sure if that's going to be particularly relevant to the story, but in case it comes up, now you know lol.

"Oh dear, is your wheel bothering you? Lift it up for me? Great, that's great, I see the problem now. Think you can make do with a bit of grease until I can find you a new bearing? Perfect, you're such a brave boy. Good job."

Bucky froze outside the door to the lab. Who was Stark talking to? He'd never heard him use such a soft voice before, never heard him hand out praise or comfort. Since he had been dragged to the tower by a determined Steve Rogers and a long suffering Sam Wilson six months earlier, Stark had seemed to be made of iron, cold and unyielding. Steve had muttered apologies for him after curt brush offs by the coffee machine often enough that Bucky had got the impression that he hadn't always been like that, but this?

This was so different to his experiences to date that his brain seemed to have short circuited.

Bucky inched forward and peered cautiously into the lab. Stark came slowly into view, sitting on the floor with a screwdriver behind one ear. He had a pair of goggles slung around his neck and dark bruises under his eyes and his hair looked like he had been electrocuted, but none of that surprised Bucky. What shocked him was the sparkle in those tired eyes as he used a small wooden paintbrush to dab grease from a tin onto the wheel of...

"Is that a new robot?"

Stark jumped and dropped the paintbrush, leaving a smear of grease on the floor. A larger robot, DUM-E, if Bucky remembered correctly, whirred and zoomed forward with a cloth to polish the spot.

"Dammit Barnes, I have a heart condition, you could have killed me," Stark said, clutching at his chest where Bucky could see the faint glow of his arc reactor through his worn t-shirt. "What do you want?"

"Sorry," Bucky apologised, lifting his metal arm in explanation. The little finger was bent awkwardly and the servo had jammed. "I was sparring with Clint, got my finger caught in his bowstring. Figured you'd prefer me coming down here and letting you fix it rather than trying to operate on the dining table."

"Of course I would, only idiots operate on themselves," Stark said blithely, reaching out a hand to DUM-E who grasped it gently and lifted him from the floor. "FIX-IT, buddy, I think you're all greased up now. DUM-E, take your brother over to the spare parts boxes and find him a 32 bore bearing, ok? Less than 70mm in diameter if you know what's good for you."

DUM-E beeped his assent and Bucky watched as he lead the smaller robot over to a large stack of plastic boxes at the back of the workshop.

"That'll take them hours," Stark said, watching them fondly. "But it's good for them to do things for themselves, within reason. Workbench five I think, the one with the magnifying glass. Be with you in a sec, I just need to get this grease off me before it goes inside you. Why on earth was Barton's bowstring involved in a sparring match? Actually, I don't want to know. Want a smoothie?"

Bucky was confused. This Stark here was nothing like the Stark he had seen on the common floors. He was beginning to wonder if this was why Steve had been apologising. Had Steve caused the split between these two sides of Stark? He was going to call this one Tony, he decided. The man standing at the sink, still chattering away about smoothies as he scrubbed grease splatters from his arms with a nail brush looked more like a Tony.

  
After that first glimpse of Tony, Bucky started to spot him more often. It was Tony who quickly stifled a grin when Clint was irrelevant in briefings, and it was Tony who had converted the small room behind the gym into a ballet studio for Natasha. He was beginning to suspect that Tony had personally redesigned the tower with them all in mind, although he didn't seem to have accounted for Bucky.

Bucky didn't mind that. The spare room on Steve's level was bigger than their entire apartment back in Brooklyn. He wasn't entirely sure what he'd do with his own space, the closest he'd come to living on his own was the studio he'd rented in New Orleans while he was on the run, before Sam found him and persuaded him to give Steve a chance.

It had been a crappy little place with intermittent hot water and a draughty front door, but when Steve saw fit to barge into his room without knocking at all hours of the day and night, he found himself missing it.

He wasn't sure what possessed him to wander back down to Tony's workshop after declining Steve's offer to watch a movie with him, but he felt restlessness itching under his skin the longer he stayed in his room, and the thought of sitting passively on a sofa watching the screen was intolerable.

JARVIS let him in without a word, the fast beat of clashing music he didn't recognise washing over him as the glass doors slid open. Tony was welding something that little a little like iron man armour, but thinner with less plating, hanging from a gantry on the ceiling.

Bucky wandered around looking at the projects scattered across the workbenches, not wanting to interrupt Tony at a crucial moment and mess up his work. He spotted the little robot Tony had been working on before polishing up some pieces of bright red plating, and crouched down to be on a level with it's primary camera.

"Hey little guy. How's the new wheel bearing treating you?" he asked it.

The robot beeped and waved the cloth at him before zooming a few feet back and forth in demonstration.

"Looks like it's working great. Did you find the bearing yourself in the end?"

Another wave of the cloth, looked like that was an affirmative.

"Good job. Is this part of the Iron Man suit? Or is it for whatever Tony is working on?"

The robot made a derisive noise that almost sounded like an electronic raspberry and Bucky laughed. "I guess you don't approve of Tony's new project, huh? Maybe I should ask him about it then, see why he's ignoring your opinion." The robot whistled in an ascending scale and waved the cloth energetically. "Of course your opinion matters," Bucky told him.

A clatter made him look up to see Tony staring at him in astonishment, welding mask pushed up above his forehead and his cheek smeared with grease.

"J, kill the tunes," he said, still staring at Bucky. The pounding music died, and Bucky missed it a little. "What are you doing here?"

"Talking to your robot," Bucky told him, climbing back to his feet. "Sorry, the room was too... I didn't think you'd mind. I can go to the gym instead if you don't want me here."

"No, no, you can stay. I was just surprised. Got energy to burn then?"

Bucky shrugged. "Just didn't want to watch a movie. Wouldn't be adverse to stress testing if you need something whacked hard though."

Tony grinned. "I'll keep it in mind."

"What are you working on now?" Bucky asked, moving towards the frame Tony had been welding. "It looks like a suit without any room for a pilot."

Tony sighed and rubbed at his forehead, dislodging the welding mask. "It's called the Iron Legion project. You know when you do something, and then immediately regret it? I destroyed all my old suits, all my backups and my projects, for love. Specifically for one fiery red-head, to make her happy. Only things don't always work out the way you want them to, hey? So now I have no red-head and no suits and a big hole to fill. Only Bruce didn't want to come help me, and the work is going stupidly slow and it's just... I guess my heart's not in it."

"Your other robots don't seem to like the project either," Bucky said slowly, watching Tony's face for clues that he was about to piss the man off. He didn't want to overstep after all. "So, explain it to me. Why do you need it? Why is it better than what you had before?"

Tony groaned. "It's not better, that's the problem," he said. "It's cheaper, and faster, and historically that means it's worse, not better. Ok, so story time. I modified a lot of my suits so that JARVIS could pilot them, and when I was in battle two years ago it was just me and Rhodey, and I was able to have JARVIS piloting about 20 suits and then switch between them as they got damaged and it was a thing of beauty. I was my own backup, or JARVIS was, and it was this amazing moment of teamwork and firepower"

"And then you blew them up for Pepper Potts," Bucky said, having been sure to familiarise himself with his host in his first two days at the Tower. There had been a lot of reading material.

"Do not say her name," Tony admonished, wincing. "Want a smoothie while I tell the rest of this epic tale?"

"Sounds good, I'm a little hungry."

"Extra protein for the super-soldier then. Don't worry, I won't put banana in, I know you think they taste weird now."

"That's because they do," Bucky muttered as he followed Tony to the kitchenette. "Carry on with the explanation. You wanted backup in battle, right?"

Tony nodded. "Yeah. We're quite a small team, there is the potential for a lot of collateral damage when we go out and do stuff, and thanks to the whole Hydra/Shield thing - that is not a criticism, I'm only sad that we didn't find out sooner and crush the snakes - the Avengers doesn't have a whole lot of backup. The police and army... Well, they do their best but a lot of the threats we deal with are somewhat above their paygrade."

"So, you're building this Iron Legion for backup. Tony... I get where you're coming from, but I don't think it's the best plan," Bucky said, wanting to be honest with his new... Friend? Was this a friendship? It felt a little like one.

Tony jabbed at the button on the blender and stared as the separate ingredients were pulverised together into pale pink. "Convince me," he said, looking intrigued. "God knows I need someone to bounce ideas off of now that Bruce and Steve have abandoned me."

"What?" Bucky was completely sidetracked. "Steve abandoned you? Why?"

Tony shrugged. "For Shield, for you," he explained. "Although I guess he came back for you, not that that makes it any easier. After the fight with Loki, I invited everyone to stay at the Tower. I figured that we should learn to work together as a group, but the others... They seemed to consider it more of a one time thing, us all working together. They weren't all that interested in forming a proper Avengers team back then. Clint had this thing with the Mafia down in Bed-Stuy and something clandestine in a Farm in Iowa that I'm not sure I'm supposed to know about, but he's been popping by pretty regularly recently. Natasha went to the Shield base in Washington to take missions down there, and a few weeks later Steve followed her. Bruce stayed for a bit, but then he got a call and hopped on a flight back to South America and I haven't seen him since. Anyway, this is all water under the bridge now, Steve and Natasha are back and now we have you and Birdman and the Avengers is starting to look like a proper official... thing. You're supposed to be convincing me, so go."

Bucky resisted the urge to roll his eyes and sipped at the smoothie instead, strawberry and vanilla bursting over his tongue. "All right. So, I get why having all the suits as backup was fantastic, but I think you're miss-judging the comfort level that your average civilian has with technology," he started. "People are scared of what they don't understand, so they get angry and lash out. You're likely to have them attacking the Legion as they try to keep them safe or clear the area. Police and Army might be less effective, but they stand a better chance of gaining cooperation over groups of scared people faster than the Legion, that's point one."

"Ok," Tony nodded, looking thoughtful. "I'll admit that I hadn't considered that, and this is hard for me to admit but I think you're probably right. What's point two?"

"I don't think that... You're not going to be able to get in them, even if they are backing you up. If the suit gets damaged, all they can do is cover you, right? I just... The way that you described the last battle with your old suits, I don't think that the Legion are going to cut it. I don't think they can do what you really want them to."

Tony downed half of his own, much greener, smoothie and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "I know," he said into the remains of his drink. "That's the point that I've been struggling with, the sheer inadequacy of this design in comparison to what came before, but at the same time I thought that this was something that we needed and I didn't want to put my own hangups first."

"You're not," Bucky reassured him. "I think the plan is a broken plan for more reasons than just those."

Tony nodded, frowning. "Ok, I'm making a snap decision. JARVIS?"

"Yes Sir?"

"Scrap the Iron Legion program and all protocols associated with it, stat. Shelve it all in backup 53, and have the kids recycle the prototypes for parts. Let's start working on that skycycle idea instead." Bucky watched as the engineer sighed, his tired eyes thoughtful as he watched the mechanised gantry carry the limp figure of the model back into the depths of the workshop. He was amused to realise that a small flood of small robots were following its progress, swarming after like tiny stalking predators.

"How many robots do you have down here?"

Tony shrugged. "I tend to make them when I can't sleep," he confessed. "And it's nice to have company in here. They keep the shop clean and tidy. I was thinking of teaching one or two of them to cook, but so far none of them have expressed an interest. There are more at the mansion, some of them have taken to painting and restoration work really well, and I like to have them doing jobs that they enjoy."

"Are all of them sentient? Or are some of them like JARVIS, capable of inhabiting multiple bodies?"

Tony grinned at him. "I knew I liked you for a reason," he said, confusing Bucky. "Each has it's own AI, JARVIS is the big brother keeping an eye on them all. I think I read in your file that you used to be a mechanic back in the day, I might have something that would interest you at the mansion. Want to see? You can meet the rest of them too if you like."

Intrigued, Bucky nodded. Steve would hopefully be engrossed in his movie for at least a couple of hours, and with Clint out the tower for reasons unknown and Natasha on a solo mission it wasn't like there was anyone to spar with. Spending time with Tony certainly topped the list of interesting things to do with his afternoon.

He followed the engineer over to a smooth section of wall that protruded slightly into the room. "Ok, so this is a secret," Tony said, shifting from foot to foot like a kid at Christmas. "I did kinda mean to let you guys know at some point, but I figured that if there was ever really an emergency then JARVIS knows about it so he could have guided you here if needed."

"What are you talking about? Are we taking a secret passage?" Bucky asked, grinning.

Tony nodded, reaching out and touching his palm to the wall. His handprint briefly glowed green, and then a section of the wall slid aside to reveal a small wood panelled elevator car that smelt faintly of cigars and strongly of lavender polish.

"I'm afraid that I cannot get the stink of cigars out," Tony said apologetically. "Totally dad's fault, the kids have tried but no matter how much they polish it lingers like the thing is lined with cigar boxes instead of oak. Come on, I think you'll like this."

The ride down was as smooth as the main elevators, if quite a bit faster and they both took a moment to repressurise their ears as they reached the bottom. The secret elevator opened into a wide underground passageway with a stone floor and arching ceiling. Bucky peered into the gloom and gasped in delight. "Are those train tracks?" he demanded. "You have a secret train under the tower? That's awesome!"

"Glad you approve," Tony grinned as the tapped a code into a metal keypad mounted on the wall and with a faint grind of metal on metal the train car rolled into sight. "It's programmed to wait a little way down the tunnel in case someone accidentally finds their way down there. Plus the tunnel is more structurally sound... Sorry I'm babbling, there are a lot of reasons."

"I'm sure they're all good reasons," Bucky assured him as he pulled the carriage door open. "After you."

"Ooh, manners," Tony quipped, fluttering his eyelashes before hopping gracefully into the carriage and sprawling onto the nearest velvet seat. "It'll start once you close the door."

Bucky did so and tried not to grin like an idiot as the carriage smoothly moved into the tunnel, picking up speed quickly. He moved to the large angled window at the front and stared out, although other than a few maintenance points and swooping lines of cable lining the walls there wasn't much to see.

"Was this tunnel purpose built?" he asked Tony, who straightened from his sprawl to answer him.

"I think it was an old sewer line that was either decommissioned when a new system got put in or requisitioned by dad, but I'm not sure. I always knew it was here - Jarvis said that I wandered away from my Nanny when I was two or so and they found me down here after several panicked hours of searching. I thought it was amazing for years, I was so sad that I couldn't tell anyone about it, and then once I got to the point where I probably could, well." Tony shrugged. "It didn't lead anywhere I particularly wanted to go."

Bucky nodded, and after a careful glance at Tony's face in the reflection of the windscreen, decided that a new topic might be in order. "I've been thinking about what you said earlier, and I was thinking that maybe we should liaise with either the army or the police force or both," he said thoughtfully. "Offer some additional training with the Avengers so that they're better able to back us up. After all, it's hard to cover someone when you don't know what their capabilities are - makes it a lot harder to know what's sort of enemy is easily managed and what we'd need help with."

Tony closed his eye for a second and then nodded. "How come Capsicle gets touted all over the country as being this sensational strategic mind and military leader when out of the two of you, you're the only one that speaks sense half the time?" he asked, shaking his head. "I'll get on that. Or JARVIS, get on that please. Add it to the agenda for our next team meeting please, and schedule meetings with the Chief of Police and whoever is in charge of... Uh, West Point?"

"Sargent," Bucky explained once Tony had finished talking with JARVIS. "Captains like Steve don't need to make sense, they have Sergeants to figure it all out for them and then they just pretty it up in posh speech and make it palatable for the Generals to sign off on."

"That makes a disturbing amount of sense," Tony announced. "Aaaaand we're nearly here. Welcome to Stark Mansion. Not its best prospect, but one of the more private ones."

The tunnel seemed to go on, but the carriage had stopped at a small brick built platform with electric lights fashioned to look like lamps. "It's a little whimsical," Bucky commented as he hopped out and looked around. "Sort of reminds me of London, weirdly."

"The workshop is on the same level as this, under the formal gardens, or there's a staircase begin the second panel that leads into the library on the ground floor," Tony told him, opening the door to the workshop with another palm print on a seemingly blank section of wall. JARVIS brought up the lights as they stepped inside. "There's a swimming pool and a training area too, but most of this is Dad's private workshop, now my private workshop. Below this level there are servers and backups and the bunker, and below that is long term storage."

"Quite an operation," Bucky commented, looking around the room. Half of it seemed to be a sort of shrine to Howard Stark's works in progress, and it was pretty easy to tell where Howard's work finished and Tony's began. For a start, Tony's tended to glow.

He followed the engineer to the 'Howard' end of the room, past rolling toolboxes and a large wooden desk that looked like it had been shoved in-between a workbench and an engine crane because that's where there was room for it, and found himself looking at a large tarpaulin covering something with a lot of angles to it. Tony was hesitating with one hand on the fabric, chewing at his lip.

"I don't want to assume, so you can say no," he said as he tightened his fingers and pulled away the tarp. "But this has been sitting here for a while, and it would be cool to get it working again. What do you think?"

Bucky only had eyes for the sleek lines of the black motorbike, perched on a centre stand next to a box of parts. There was no dust, the workshop was too clean for that, but the machine had clearly been sitting there for a while. "She's beautiful," he whispered as he reached out to gently push the tyre, pleased to find that after initial resistance it spun without wobbling excessively.

"Great! Tools are in the silver chest over there, bathroom is that door in the corner, I'll be over there, yell when you get hungry and we'll grab a pizza or something. Sound good?"

"Sounds like the best day I've had planned since 1943," Bucky told him sincerely, enjoying the way that the honesty made Tony's eyes widen. He grinned and after a moment, the engineer hesitantly grinned back.

"Alright then. Ah, everything here is old, so move it if it's in the way. Arrange the space the way that you'd like."

"Are you sure?" Bucky asked, looking around at the full workbenches.

Tony shrugged. "It's about time I cleaned up in here anyway. The robots will help you out with anything that you need anyhow." As if they had been waiting for their cue, three small robots rolled around the side of the desk and beeped enquiringly. "This is FIX-IT, TAP-IT and BASH-IT," Tony said. "Don't ask about the names, it's easier that way. They volunteer as tribute to help out, they like fixing things."

"Great, thanks guys," Bucky said to the robots, who waved their extendable claw arms at him in response. "Let's clear a space to work with first?"

He received chirps of assent from the bots and an approving smile from Tony. "Just mark out an area that you think will be large enough and have them help you clear it and rearrange the benches," the engineer advised, holding out a stick of chalk. "They work better with a set target."

Their fingers brushed as Bucky took the offered chalk, warmer than Bucky expected with a rough edge of callouses and scars. "Thank you."

Tony's eyes were soft as he glanced down at the little robots waiting patiently for them to finish talking. "No problem."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cheeseburgers, small robots and Steve being slightly more reasonable than usual.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To answer publicly a point raised in the comments - namely how can it be Howard's elevator car when Tony built the tower - in my headcannon Stark Tower is built on the same site as Stark Industries New York headquarters. Tony's workshop is at the top of the old building (many floors below the Avengers living space) and incorporates floor space that was previously Howard's office. I can't find a way to elegantly add that into the fic itself as we're sticking with Bucky's POV this time so I'm afraid a note will have to do!

The prospect of a Team meeting had suddenly become exponentially more interesting to Bucky since he and Tony had become friends. Bucky made a point of sitting next to Tony, much to Steve's confusion, for the first meeting after Tony had taken him to the Mansion. Together they put forward the proposal to reach out to the Army and arrange for some Avengers specific training sessions. Clint, dialling in from wherever he was currently, was reluctant and Steve was belligerent, but Sam and Natasha thought that it was a brilliant idea and after that Sam was able to talk Steve round pretty quickly. Clint, sensing that the majority was against him, didn't offer any further objections beyond a refusal to be included in the training plan himself.

"Thanks for the backup Buckster," Tony had muttered once Steve and Sam finished arguing about whether it was a good idea and started arguing about logistics instead.

Bucky shrugged. "No problem, happy to back you up any time tin man. Doesn't have to be on the battlefield."

He kept his eyes carefully turned away, although a large part of him really wanted to know what expressions that little statement had painted across the billionaire's face. He'd noticed that Tony could be a bit skittish in public after so many years in the spotlight, prone to pulling on his 'press face' whenever all eyes turned to him in the team meetings. He'd been surprised by his first real glimpse of the real Tony Stark, and now that he had interacted with him the thought of talking with a Tony hiding behind a mask made his stomach clench.

Unsurprisingly, the others eventually came to the conclusion that Sam and Natasha would head the project to work with the Army. Clint apparently had 'a lot going on at the moment' and Thor was making frequent trips between Asgard and Midgard in the aftermath of the battle with the Dark Elves. Bruce hadn't been heard from in a few weeks, so he was automatically counted out.

"Maybe we should think about expanding the roster," Tony mused as Bucky followed him to the elevator bank after the meeting. "I want a cheeseburger, shall we go out for cheeseburgers or order in?"

"They're always better made fresh."

"You're right," Tony declared, jabbing the button for the basement. "There's a great place over in Harlem, let's go there."

"Sounds good to me. So, do you have any actual ideas for expanding the roster?"

Tony grinned up at him as the doors opened onto the private parking garage for Stark executives and VIP visitors, leading the way over to a polished red mustang. "I have a few leads. There's been strange happenings around the Baxter building for a while, for example."

"Is that that guy on fire that we see on the news sometimes?" Bucky asked as he climbed into the passenger seat and reached for a seatbelt.

"Yeah. There was a kerfuffle about it ooh... Ten years ago? But I was busy being ridiculous at the time. JARVIS can give you the highlights if you're interested, but I think it's probably worth making contact."

"Where were they when Loki attacked?" Bucky asked as Tony pulled out into typical Manhattan traffic.

"Atlantis, believe it or not," Tony signed, narrowly avoiding a collision with a yellow cab. "They were underwater for the whole thing. God traffic in New York is terrible. I should move back to LA. We'll be in here a while, I might as well tell you about them. Ok, so there's four of them, three of them are scientists and one is a brother of one of the scientists. Reed Richards is the leader I think, he stretches. Sue Storm creates force fields and turns invisible, Johnny Storm is the one that can set himself on fire and fly and Ben Grimm has super strength and extremely tough skin. Looks like he's made of rocks now."

"What did that to them? Watch out for that truck."

"Thanks," Tony said, pausing in his narrative as he deftly manoeuvred around the truck and got them on a section of relatively clear road. "Uh, radiation did it."

"Like Banner and the Hulk?"

"Cosmic radiation rather than Gamma rays, but I guess it's the same principle. Hey, that's a thought - JARVIS, make sure that any space-worthy suits have shielding against Cosmic Radiation, ok buddy? I don't fancy my chances if I get hit by that."

"I live to serve you, Sir," JARVIS' dry voice issued from the car's speaker system.

"Thanks buddy. Can you also send a meeting request to Richards? Pick a free spot on my calendar for... Three days time. Let him pick the venue. Tasty-freeze, do you want to come?"

"Sure, sounds like fun. Want me to tell Steve what the plan is?"

Tony shot him a startled look. "Well, I had been steeling myself for that particular argument, but if you want to take it on then please, be my guest."

Bucky smiled at him. "I reckon I have more experience dealing with his stubborn ass than you do, I don't mind taking one for the team," he joked.

Stark slid the mustang into a parking space, and gestured dramatically at a green and white striped awning across the street. "I give you.... The best cheeseburgers in Harlem!" he announced. "Harlem Shake. You probably won't feel at home, they've gone for an old school vibe but nowadays that means the 50's rather than the diners you had back in the 30's."

Bucky rolled his eyes. "I'm sure I can cope," he assured the billionaire, checking for traffic before opening his door. The mustang was a sweet ride and he hated the thought of scratching the paint.

*

Back at the Tower, with a full stomach and a grin on his face, Bucky didn't hesitate before following Tony into his workshop and taking the elevator with him down to the train. He felt like getting his hands dirty, and Tony's fancy fabrication units should have finished making the new gaskets he needed for the bike.

They had barely been in the Mansion for ten minutes when his phone started buzzing insistently in his jacket pocket.

"Hey Stevie," he said into the microphone, trying hard not to sound put out by the interruption.

"Where are you?" the blond demanded. "You didn't come back for lunch, and I wanted to spar but JARVIS said that you're not in the tower."

"I was getting a burger in Harlem," Bucky told him. "But I do actually need to talk to you." He eyed the motorbike sadly. "I can come back to the Tower," he decided. "Meet me in one of the conference rooms? We might need JARVIS' illustrative capabilities."

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Tony give him two thumbs up and turned to look at the engineer, who nodded encouragingly.

"All right, I'll see you in conference room D. How long will you be?"

"Gimmie half an hour. See you later, punk." He jabbed the end call button slightly harder than required, but at least he didn't crack the screen. "JARVIS, can you please reserve conference room D for the afternoon?" he asked.

"Certainly, Sargent Barnes. Consider it done."

"Thank you."

Bucky turned to Tony with a pout. "I have to go. I didn't want to go. I just got here," he grumbled. FIX-IT rolled over and gently nudged at his boot in sympathy. Bucky reached down to pick him up. "Do you want to go instead buddy?" he asked the bot's central camera. "I bet you could persuade Steve that expanding the roster is a good idea. You'd be real good at it."

"No kidnapping my bots, Barnes," Tony said with mock seriousness. "Besides, Steve isn't ok with DUM-E, I doubt he'd be any better with the rest of them."

Bucky looked back at FIT-IT, who was revving his little motor as he requested to be put down and found himself, not for the first time, completely unable to understand where his supposed best friend was coming from when it came to the future. The future was wonderful, full of fantastic and bizarre things, and the strides made forwards towards equality and inclusion still amazed him.

"Well, I think you're fantastic, stuff Steve," Bucky told FIX-IT, who chirped happily when he was placed back on the floor. He looked up to find Tony quickly rearranging his face into a neutral expression. "Are you ok, tin man?"

"Never better," the engineer quipped, spinning on the spot and heading for the boxes of sky-cycle parts that DUM-E and U had moved from the Tower workshop with JARVIS' help. It was obvious that he didn't want to talk, and as much as Bucky wanted to press the issue, he knew that Steve would be waiting for him in Conference Room D and he had better think of some Steve-appropriate arguments for expanding the roster before he got there.

"I'll see you later, hopefully talking to Steve won't take too long."

"Bring back coffee!" Tony called over his shoulder, halfway into the first crate. "U, how many straps did you think you needed? It's not like it was travelling far. Is this stapled to the box? Really?"

Bucky left him to it, walking the now familiar route through the basement to the train car, which slid to a halt in front of him as he opened the door. Grinning at JARVIS' efficiency, as well as still marvelling at how surreal it still seemed sometimes to be living in the future, using things every day that had been only the barest glimmers of imagination in his pulp fiction novels, he climbed in and wished that he had a notepad to start jotting ideas on. Then he remembered that he was living in the future.

"JARVIS, can you help me take some notes?"

"Of course, Sargent Barnes. Project title?"

"Avengers Roster Expansion. Uh... Ok. So, list the existing roster and their current whereabouts please?"

"Iron Man - New York. Captain America - New York. Thor - Unknown. Black Widow - New York. Hawkeye - Iowa. Hulk - Manaus. Winter Soldier - New York. Falcon - New York."

"Where the hell is Manaus?"

"Brazil."

Bucky blinked. Bruce really did get about, although given the current weather patterns in New York, jetting off to a nice warn rainforest didn't sound like a bad idea at all. "Ok, can you give me a table with the percentage of team availability for the last year by month? Oh, actually do it by month and then in the next column break it down further by week?"

"Required amount of time to complete computation: 57 seconds. Shall I go ahead?"

"Yes please."

Bucky was quiet for a minute, not wanting to distract JARVIS from his analysis. He stared at the rough walls of the tunnel as they sped fast, and tried to think of other ways to convince Steve that he was a good idea. Of course, he realised, he was borrowing trouble. Steve might not have a problem with the idea at all, Tony's paranoia might be rubbing off on him. But then he remembered the way that Steve had been when a General tentatively proposed adding some new members to the Howling Commandos, and he decided that calling Tony's caution paranoia was unfair. It wasn't paranoia if they really were out to get you after all.

"Computation complete," JARVIS announced. "The table has been added to the project file."

"Have we had 100% attendance at any time over the past 6 months?"

"No, the highest percentage of attendance was 87.5% in September when Thor was back for the entire month."

"Why was War Machine not included in the roster?"

"Colonel Rhodes is listed as an affiliate of the Avengers rather than a core member."

"Ok, make a note of that then, do we have any other affiliate members?"

"Sir has listed several possibilities in a separate project, shall I ask his permission to share the information with you?"

"Go for it," Bucky confirmed as the train stopped under the Tower. "If he says yes, add it to the list. What floor is conference room D on?"

"Fourty seven. I'm afraid that the elevator linked to this level only reaches the fifteenth."

"Ah well, you can't have everything," Bucky grinned as he stepped inside and JARVIS activated the mechanism. He sniffed at the faint scent of Howard's cigars. "Have the bots tried baking soda to get the smell out?" he asked. "These fancy modern cleaners don't seem to be working so well, but my Ma always used to swear by it."

JARVIS was silent for a moment longer than Bucky was used to. "No, they have not," the AI eventually confirmed as the door slid open to reveal the workshop. "I will suggest it to them."

Bucky arrived at Conference room D about 25 minutes after hanging up on Steve and was not at all surprised to find the blond already sitting at the table.

"You went to Harlem for lunch?" Steve asked as soon as he pushed the door open. "Alone?"

He looked annoyed, and Bucky bit at his lip, praying that he wouldn't turn what was supposed to be a work meeting into something personal. "No, Stark suggested cheeseburgers after the team meeting and said he knew a place. We had an interesting discussion in the car that I wanted to talk to you about."

"All right," Steve said, relaxing back into his chair. "What is it?"

"Have you ever been briefed on a group called the Fantastic Four?" Bucky asked. Right on cue, JARVIS brought up a hologram with some news clips and four headshots, each with a brief profile hanging in the air next to it. "They were missed out of my briefing packet, but Tony was telling me about them and they seem to be pretty competent at taking out bad guys."

Steve leant forward to scan over the information and Bucky breathed a sigh of relief. JARVIS projected the master notes file on the table in front of him, and he quickly scanned through the names and data listed there while Steve read.

"Where were these guys during the battle of New York?" Steve asked, frowning. "I've never even heard of them, although looking at the dates on these articles I guess most of the big events went down when I was still frozen."

"They were in Atlantis during the battle, missed the whole thing," Bucky told him, pleased to have one answer that Steve wanted. "I was thinking that it might be worth reaching out to them, sharing information. I've got some figures here, and the Avengers haven't exactly been at full strength for a while. Having some superpowered backup in the area sounds like a sensible thing to set up."

As he expected, Steve frowned but bent his head to look at the chart that JARVIS put in front of him. Bucky sat back in his chair and wished for a cup of coffee, knowing that leaving Steve to stew over the facts would be more effective than continuing his argument.

"87.5% is the highest attendance in 6 months?" he grumbled. "I didn't realise that Bruce had been gone for so long. Clint's been away for weeks too, and Thor has never been especially reliable."

"I don't think that's particularly fair to Thor," Bucky pointed out. He liked the big blond, he was fun to spar with when he was around. "The man is a Prince, he has a Realm to help govern. Ok, so currently the only affiliate member of the Avengers is War Machine."

"Iron Patriot," Steve corrected with a grin that reminded Bucky of the thirties.

Bucky rolled his eyes. "So, I think it's a good idea to take a look at who else is out there that might want to come stand under our banner. JARVIS has a list, but there's probably more. Pym industries was working on something cool back in the 80s that mysteriously vanished so that's probably worth looking into. There's a guy called Daredevil down in Hell's Kitchen, and a guy called Wolverine who looks suspiciously like that grumpy Canadian that we met in Paris during the war - here, check this out."

Bucky flicked his fingers and sent the mugshot of 'Wolverine' across the table to Steve, who studied it carefully. "It really does look like him, looks exactly the same actually. We should check that out."

"JARVIS, do we know where Wolverine is right now?" Bucky asked.

"He is believed to be residing in the Westchester area at this time, Sargent," the AI revealed helpfully.

"Ok, make a note of that, I think it's worth looking into it to see if he is the same guy. Stranger things have happened, right?"

"Certainly, Sargent."

Bucky looked up to find Steve frowning at him. "What?" he asked. "Have I got mustard on my face?"

Steve flushed and shrugged. "I just... I guess I hadn't... You're really comfortable with JARVIS," he said eventually. Bucky grinned at him.

"Don't you remember my favourite books growing up? Of course I love JARVIS," he teased. "Call yourself a best friend? Who was it that dragged you to the Stark Expo in the first place? This is awesome, living in the future."

Steve flushed further, a dark red stain spreading down his neck. "I guess I owe you an apology," he said, his voice as tight as his clenched fists. "I always go on at you about remembering stuff, and I guess I'm a hypocrite because I forgot that. I guess... Buck have I been pissing you off? Assuming that you're going to react to all this technology the way that I did?"

"Rather than viewing it with suspicion and misplaced nostalgia for the 'old ways' the way that you do, you mean?" Bucky shot back, not willing to let Steve off the hook entirely now that the man had exhibited a little of the self reflection that he knew that he was capable of. He let Steve stew for a moment before slapping his palm down on the table to snap him out of it. "Done is done," he dismissed. "I'm not mad, just try to remember this conversation going forwards, ok? I like the future, I like the technology. I know you'd spend the days training and reading books in the library if you could, but that's not for me."

"Where have you been disappearing to?" Steve asked. "I've been curious, you know."

"I guessed when you oh so subtly tried to interrogate me at dinner the other night," Bucky rolled his eyes. "I've been with Tony. Met him the other week when I needed help with my arm, and he's been letting me hang out and bouncing ideas off me. I'm fixing a motorbike with the help of his bots."

Steve frowned again, if he kept it up he was going to get forehead wrinkles. "You met him months ago, when we first arrived," he objected.

"Nope, you introduced me to Stark. I only met Tony last week." the distinction was quite clear in his head, and he was satisfied when Steve's eyes widened in realisation.

"I guess he has been putting his public face on a lot recently," he reflected. "Since Banner moved out."

"Someone like him shouldn't create in a vacuum, the results might be scary." Bucky thought about the Iron Legion prototype he'd convinced Tony to scrap and how nice it had been when Tony had really listened to him. Steve wasn't the best at taking other people's viewpoints into account sometimes. "Anyway, we're here to talk about expanding the roster. What do you think?"

Steve nodded. "I think you've convinced me," he said. "JARVIS, can you please create full profiles on the prospective members that we want to approach? I'll draft a memo for the team; they might have other people that they can recommend, Natasha and Clint especially. I'll see if I can find Wolverine, find out if he really is Logan, do you want to take the Fantastic Four?"

Bucky nodded. "Sure. We done here for now or do you have more questions?"

Steve rolled his eyes at him. "Go get coffee, I can tell you're longing for one," he teased. "I'll see you at dinner? I'm going to review the files here for a while."

"Ok." Bucky leapt to his feet, and then had a thought. "JARVIS, please allow Steve to make updates to my project file and allow the other Avengers read only access via their accounts."

"Consider it done, Sargent," JARVIS said softly.

Bucky grinned at Steve's dumbfounded expression and quickly left to find coffee, not wanting to get caught up in another conversation about technology; he had a caffeine deprived engineer and a motorbike waiting for him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bucky meets the Fantastic Four, we finally find out what happened between Steve and Tony and there's an emergency in the workshop.

Bucky stared up at the imposing frontage of the Baxter Building and felt his heat sink into his boots. What was he even doing here? The rather enthralling sight of Tony's pert behind in tailored trousers reminded him as the Billionaire pushed his way through the double doors as if he owned the building. Maybe he did, Bucky thought, hysteria edging in. It wasn't like he kept track of who owned what real estate in Manhattan.  
  
"Are you coming or what?" Tony asked, looking back over his shoulder to where Bully had frozen by the door. "Our appointment is at two and although I've met Richards before so I know that he's probably forgotten that we're coming, Storm will have remembered and she makes the best coffee, seriously. We want to drink it while it's still hot"  
  
"Sorry, I just... Wondering what I'm doing here, to be honest Tony,” Bucky confessed. He’d agreed to come with because Tony has asked him, because he’d found it almost impossible to say no when Tony’s bright eyes focused on him and all his brain came up with was ‘yes, whatever you want, just carry on smiling at me’. He knew that he was in trouble; this was how he’d ended up dancing with so many pretty dames back in the day. He’d always been a sucker for a feisty brunette, but in those days the worst that could happen was a punch from a pissed off boyfriend trying to surprise his girl when on leave. This? This was so much worse. “I think pretty much any other member of the team would be a better choice than me right now."  
  
Tony's eyes crinkled as he walked back to circle Bucky's wrist lightly with his fingers. "But I don't want to visit the Fantastic Four with any other member of the team,” he said lightly, tugging Bucky forward. Against his better judgement, Bucky allowed the shorter man to pull him through the door. “I want to drink fantastic coffee and talk about science and logistics with you, Bucky. Come on, it'll be fine. I'll be with you the whole time."  
  
Frowning and feeling more than a little pathetic, Bucky trailed after Tony as they crossed the frankly ostentatious lobby to a bank of imposing elevators.  
  
"Don't worry," Tony said quietly once they were alone in the elevator car. "I know you're a big scary master assassin and that will never change." It shouldn't have made him feel better but it did. He still punched Tony in the shoulder with his flesh hand though, it was the reaction that the engineer expected after all.  
  
Similarly to the Avengers, the Fantastic Four seemed to live and work in the same area. The elevator opened on a sterile living area with several low couches and a glass coffee table with a vase of artfully arranged flowers in the dead centre. Large glass interior windows showed a workout area, a futuristic kitchenette and a laboratory that looked like something from the Star Trek series Tony sometimes projected onto the wall of the workshop. It was very much a lab rather than a workshop, banks of computer monitors, strange machinery ten foot high and a distinct lack of obvious toolboxes or cars. Bucky was thankful that the lack of metal topped tables meant that it didn’t resemble a Hydra lab in the slightest, but he’d still take Tony’s workspace any day.  
  
A tall blonde woman who reminded Bucky of Pepper Potts came out of a side door and approached with a smile, hand extended. Tony shook it easily, Bucky swallowed his nerves and did the same. Her skin was cool and dry against his palm, her manner open but professional.  
  
“Doctor Stark, Sargent Barnes,” she said politely. “Nice to see you again Stark, and it’s a pleasure to meet you Sargent. I’ve been following your case in the news, it was a difficult read. I’m Susan Storm, please call me Sue.”  
  
“I’ve told you before to call me Tony I’m sure,” Tony said with a grin. “Is there coffee?”  
  
“I already put it on!” Sue said with a conspiratorial grin at Bucky. “Honestly, it’s like he can’t function without caffeine, none of them can. Reed will be drawn out of the lab by the aroma soon enough.”  
  
“She called you Doctor?” Bucky commented as they followed Sue's clicking heels towards the promised coffee. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone else do that before.”  
  
Tony shrugged. “I met her at a science conference that I was attending as me, not as a business man, and I guess it stuck. Most people in the business world forget about my other qualifications, but she never has. I find it refreshing.”  
  
“Might be that the rest of them are being insulting,” Bucky muttered. He knew how hard it was to get a doctorate.  
  
“It doesn’t bother me,” Tony was quick to assure him as they arrived in the kitchenette. “You know how useful it is to be underestimated sometimes. Means that I can upstage people in the most embarrassing fashion.”  
  
"How do you take your coffee, Sargent Barnes?" She asked, opening the fanciest icebox Bucky had ever seen.  
  
"Please, call me Bucky," he said belatedly. "Just milk for me please. Is there a computer in that fridge?”  
  
Sue grinned, revealing surprisingly white teeth. “Something like that,” she said as she retrieved a jug of milk.  
  
Once they all had a mug of coffee in hand and Reed Richards had been lured away from whatever calculations he was running by the promise of caffeine, Sue turned to Tony with a challenge in her eyes.  
  
“I assume this is not a social call,” she said pointedly. “Did you want to get down to it now or shall I call in Ben and Johnny?”  
  
Tony grinned his press grin and Bucky tried not to grip his mug too tightly. “How about we start and you call them in if you think you want to?” Tony suggested. “You might tell us to take a hike straight away after all.”  
  
“Somehow I doubt that,” Reed said. “Go on then.”  
  
To Bucky's horror, Tony turned to him and raised an encouraging eyebrow, obviously intending for him to open the conversation. Sue and Reed turned their attention to him, and suddenly he had three pairs of eyes on him and it was oddly reminiscent of his time in the Howling Commandos. “We wanted to discuss opening a line of communication between our two groups,” he said evenly, trying not to glare too hard at Tony for dropping him in it like that. “I’ve been doing some analysis, and the Avengers have not been at full strength for several months due to several members having prior commitments. Rather than calling everyone back to New York when there’s a significant local threat that needs to be dealt with, we were hoping that you might be open to the idea of, well, backing each other up.”  
  
Sue and Reed looked at each other and briefly communicated through a series of shrugs and eyebrow twitches. "We're tentatively in favour of the idea," Reed said eventually, "but we probably should call in the others to discuss it. Just a moment, we'll go find them."  
  
Left alone on the sofa with Sue's truly excellent coffee, Bucky turned to glare properly at Tony. "That wasn't very nice."  
  
The billionaire grinned at him. "Not sorry," he said cheerfully. "You were brilliant, as I knew you would be, and next time you won't be so nervous."  
  
"You could have warned me that you were going to drop me in it!"  
  
Tony reached out, telegraphing the motion carefully, and rested his hand on Bucky's shoulder. "I didn't want you to blow it up in your head and get all freaked out," he said. "You can't stay in the shadows letting Steve do the talking forever, and I saw this as a great opportunity. I'm right here, in case you froze up - which you didn't - and this is a relatively safe conversation. No cameras, no voice recordings."  
  
Bucky grimaced but he could see Tony's point. He had had a grand total of four interactions with the press in the last eight months, and every time Steve had jumped in to answer for him. "All right," he conceded. "I guess I have been letting Steve talk for me in public."  
  
Tony nodded. "Your opinions aren't always the same," he said lightly. "I think you should use your voice and let them know that you're more than Steve's faithful shadow." He shifted back as a grumbling argument preceded their hosts into the room.  
  
They left the Baxter Building an hour later, full of coffee and with the outline of a basic plan saved in JARVIS' servers. The whole plan, in fact hinged on JARVIS and his abilities to compartmentalise and communicate. The Fantastic Four had all contributed to basic profiles with only a small protest on the part of Johnny Storm, who Bucky had quickly determined was being belligerent for the sake of annoying the rest of his team. JARVIS would send them brief situational updates automatically for incidents that either fell into a set of predermined parameters or were classified as major, otherwise they'd only be contacted if an Avenger specifically asked for them to be updated.  
  
From the other side, the Fantastic Four had been given a secure line to speak with JARVIS and call for backup should they need it.  
  
Feeling the warm afterglow of a successful mission, Bucky left Tony in his Tower Workshop and headed up to the communal levels to find Steve. Although Tony was happy for JARVIS to be a liaison point for the Fantastic Four and the Avengers, he had been bouncing ideas off of Bucky the whole way home and seemed to have decided on creating a second AI to help out.  
  
"So much of JARVIS' computing power is now dedicated to long term monitoring," the engineer had sighed. "It's beginning to affect my own projects, but I can't just turn it off. Creating a second AI to help share the load of the simpler tasks is the best solution I can think of."  
  
Bucky was looking forward to seeing what Tony could come up with. There was no sign of Steve in the communal area, so he headed for their apartment and let himself in.  
  
"Steve?"  
  
"In here!" the blond called from his bedroom. "How did it go at the Baxter Building?"  
  
"It was good, they've agreed to work with us," Bucky said with a pleased grin. He lent against Steve's doorway to find that his friend was packing clothes into a suitcase lying open on the bed. "What's happening?"  
  
"Natasha and I got invited to three different army bases over the next two weeks, we're going to make a trip of it," Steve explained. "I didn't get a chance to follow that James Howlett lead, if you get a chance will you see if you can find out if it's the same guy? Otherwise we can pick it up when I get back."  
  
"Sure thing," Bucky confirmed. "Have you spoken with Tony at all?"  
  
Steve did his best impression of a deer in headlights, and Bucky suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. "Talk to me," he ordered, suddenly completely fed up by the tension between his two friends. "I know you and him well enough to know that it was more than likely you who broke it and him who overreacted. Am I wrong?"  
  
Steve sighed. "You're not wrong. We were... He was being flippant when he was trying to explain the gay rights movement and work on the magnetic catch for my shield at the same time, and I overreacted."  
  
Bucky frowned. "Steve... You and I both know that you've never had a problem with men liking men, or you'd have dropped me like a hot potato a long time ago, I wasn't exactly subtle when we were fifteen. So what happened? Did you suddenly develop homophobia?"  
  
Steve sighed and dropped heavily to the bed, hands hanging loosely between his knees. Bucky stayed where he was leaning against the doorframe, reluctant to step into the room until Steve explained himself.  
  
"No, it's not that. Well, it is that... I thought that he was trivialising your struggle."  
  
Bucky snorted. "I didn't exactly struggle, pal," he pointed out. "Yeah it was illegal and would have got me a blue ticket out of the army, and you bet that while I was in Azzano I was wishing that I'd said screw the consequences and taken that out. But then I'd remember your stupid, stupid face and the way that you wanted to fight but couldn't and I'd decide all over again to keep my opinion on Private Brancer's ass to myself."  
  
Steve blinked at him for a moment, his eyes suspiciously bright. "Well, I snapped at Tony, and the conversation devolved from there. We fought about him not taking it seriously, he accidentally revealed that he was bisexual himself and that Howard had threatened him over it, and then he kicked me out of the workshop. We haven't talked about anything other than work and the weather since."  
  
Howard again. Bucky was tired of the way that all roads seemed to lead to Howard Bloody Stark, even in the future. Pushing aside the extremely intriguing fact that Tony was apparently bisexual, and maybe he should start being a little more obvious when appreciating his assets, Bucky focused on the broken relationship in front of him.  
  
"Ok, so you need to apologise, but it's hard to do that in words with Tony because he tends to doubt a lot," he summarised. "So you need to do something to prove to him that firstly, you're sorry for arguing with him. Secondly, that you appreciate that he is not his father, and thirdly, that you like him at least as much as Howard and don't wish the man was standing there instead of him." Steve gaped at him in for a long moment and he waited patiently for his friend's ridiculously tactical brain to grasp the problem. Eventually, Steve snapped his jaw closed with an audible click of teeth that nearly made Bucky wince out of his carefully casual pose in the doorway.  
  
"All right," he said with the particular glint in his eye that meant that he was on a mission.  
  
"Is Sam coming on this trip with you and the Widow?" Bucky asked, uncrossing his arms and stepping into the room now that Steve had made up his mind to sort out the awkwardness that had been bothering him for weeks. "I thought they were the ones dedicated to this particular project." He threw himself down on his friend's bed and grinned as Steve immediately pushed his legs off to rest on the floor.  
  
"Sam has some things to sort out in Washington," Steve explained. "And they specifically requested me, which is both annoying and flattering at the same time."  
  
"Fair enough. When do you leave?"  
  
Steve had opened his mouth to reply when their conversation was unexpectedly interrupted by JARVIS.  
  
"I'm terribly sorry to intrude, but Sargent Barnes is needed urgently in the laboratory."  
  
"Is everyone alright? Does Steve need to come?" Bucky asked, sitting up in alarm.  
  
"Captain Roger's presence is not required," JARVIS said evenly.  
  
"All right, tell Tony I'll be right there."  
  
"Certainly, Sargent." The AI paused a moment before adding. "Please hurry."  
  
Bucky said a quick goodbye to Steve before dashing out of the apartment to the nearest elevator bank. JARVIS dropped the car so quickly that his ears popped, but he grit his teeth and didn't complain. He knew that something must have gone very wrong in the workshop for JARVIS to interrupt his conversation with Steve like that, and JARVIS overriding the elevator safety controls like that only reinforced his belief that he needed to hurry.

“Tony? What’s going on?” he called as soon as he was through the doors.

“Buck? Oh thank Science, get over here,” Tony called from the back of the workshop. “It’s FIX-IT, I need some help!”

Bucky dashed across the room to where Tony was crouched by a large heap of tanged metal interspaced with storage bins. “We had a bit of an accident,” the engineer said, his eyes wide and worried, bright gold and silver iron man gauntlets sheathing his forearms. “FIX-IT dashed in to try to get GIZMO clear, I think, and got trapped. JARVIS has lost his upload connection, so I’ve been calling him and hoping that his audio receptors aren’t broken. Can you hear anything?”

He held his breath as Bucky bent his head closer to the mess to listen. After a few long seconds, he picked up a faint beeping.

“I think I hear him,” he said to the terrified engineer. “Suit up properly and let’s start clearing this mess. Is GIZMO all right?”

Tony gestured to the little robot hiding underneath a nearby workbench. “I managed to get him out already, he was closer to the edge.”

“It’ll be ok, Tony,” Bucky said trying to soothe Tony’s panic. “We’ll get him out.”

He studied the pile, which seemed to have previously been one of the storage racks that lined the walls, while Tony was encased in the shining metal of the MK 17, the closest suit on hand.

“JARVIS, it seems to be more stable on the left side, can you perform a structural analysis and let me know if you agree with me?”

“Certainly, Sargent Barnes,” the AI said immediately. To Bucky’s ears, it sounded like he was relieved to have been given something to do.

“All right, let’s get this show on the road,” Tony said, coming up beside him in the armour, sans helmet. The reinforced shoulder plates that no doubt hid an arsenal of tiny but effective weapons made his head look comically small, although Bucky was surprised to find that in the armoured boots they were now the same height.

JARVIS quickly confirmed Bucky’s hypothesis and they set to work moving the heavy crates and cutting through the more twisted pieces of metal. Three of the containers had exploded, which added to the general confusion as they picked through piece of scrap metal and a tangle of more wires than Bucky really knew what to do with.

Eventually, after averting two potential cave ins, Bucky spotted FIT-IT’s familiar casing under a layer of dust.

“I can see him!” he called to Tony as he studied the pattern of debris above the robot. “If you get out of the armour and I lift up that big piece of rebar, I think you’ll be able to pull him out. You won’t fit with it on.”

Tony was already halfway through extracting himself, shaking off the pieces of the suit so carelessly that Bucky was concerned that he was either going to damage it or himself. He bit his tongue and got into position rather than saying anything, remembering the way he felt when Becca fell out of a tree in Central Park, decades before.

As operations go, it went relatively smoothly. Bucky lifted, his bionic arm whirring with the strain, and Tony darted in to retrieve the trapped robot. Once they were both clear, Bucky slowly let the metal settle back down and began to extract himself from the pile. Tony had FIX-IT on the workbench, muttering reassurances to the young AI even though they still weren’t sure if the bot could pick them up. Bucky pulled up a stool and watched as Tony used a screwdriver to remove the, now extremely dented, protective carapace at the front of the robot.

“What’s the priority?” he asked.

“Replacing his aerial, if I do that hopefully he’ll be able to communicate with JARVIS again and we can get a damage report from him,” Tony said. “If that doesn’t work, I’ll connect his ECU to one of the computers directly, but I have to remove more panels to do that so I’m going to try this first.”

Bucky felt a little useless, sitting there to provide moral support as Tony worked feverishly, DUM-E and U collecting any part that they thought could be useful from around the workshop, but then he realised that Tony’s hands were trembling a little and he realised that there was something he could do.”

“I’m making you a smoothie,” he said firmly. “Any preferences?”

Tony looked up in surprise, the magnifying lens on his face making one eye comically large. “A smoothie? Oh, blood sugar. Yes, strawberry if I have it. Now that Pepper no longer comes down here it’s safe to have them.”

Bucky wasn’t entirely sure what Pepper had to do with anything, but Tony was already refocused on whatever it was he was doing and the request had been clear enough. The kitchen was easy to figure out, the blender already set on the counter. He found a punnet of strawberries and a gallon of milk in the icebox, a jar of peaches in a cupboard next to the protein powder and there was some sort of magnetic strip on the wall that held a set of very nice kitchen knives.

Ten minutes later the blender was dripping on the draining board and he was making his way back to Tony in time to see the little green light by FIX-IT’s aerial blink on.

“Thank god for that,” Tony breathed. “JARVIS, ask FIX-IT to send you a full diagnostic, please. Run it on monitor three.” He turned to Bucky with a relieved smile as the super Soldier placed the full glass of smoothie next to him. “Thank you. Not just for the smoothie, thank you for coming so quickly and helping and just… thank you.”

“Anytime, doll,” Bucky said, the endearment slipping out naturally as he looked into Tony’s honey brown eyes. Eyes that were now creased with confusion. “Shit, sorry,” he spluttered, taking a step back and burying his face in his smoothie glass.

“Don’t be sorry,” Tony said quickly, something like shocked awe on his face as he got up and took a step closer. “Knights in shining armour usually get a reward, right?”

Bucky choked on his smoothie. “Uh, in the fairy tales, sure,” he replied, not entirely sure where the engineer was going with this as Tony took another step closer.

“Say stop and I will,” Tony whispered as he slowly brought a hand up to cup Bucky’s cheek and leant in. Bucky closed his eyes and swayed closer, unable to stop himself as Tony’ scent enveloped him, hot metal and ozone and cocoanut tickling at his nose.

Their lips brushed, Tony’s impossibly warm and smooth after the icy chill of the smoothie, and Bucky was just sliding his hands across the small of Tony’s back to pull the shorter man closer when the Avengers alarm blared and they both froze.

Tony dropped his forehead to Bucky’s shoulder and let out a groan that he felt more than heard.

“Fuck.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the cliffhanger! But at least they got FIX-IT out before the alarm went off... I'm thinking that there will probably be five chapters to this, but I'm not 100% sure yet.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A fast update! I'm trying to complete fic before I go on Holiday at the beginning of Feb so that I don't leave you guys hanging. 1 or 2 more chapters to go after this one. 
> 
> Uh, so warnings apply for this chapter.  There's some battle damage. See end of work for notes if you think that might bother you.

_Their lips brushed, Tony’s impossibly warm and smooth after the icy chill of the smoothie, and Bucky was just sliding his hands across the small of Tony’s back to pull the shorter man closer when the Avengers alarm blared and they both froze._  

 _Tony dropped his forehead to Bucky’s shoulder and let out a groan that he felt more than heard._  

 _“Fuck.”_  

“I don’t put out until the third date,” Bucky quipped as they broke apart, mostly to try to bring a smile back to Tony’s face.  He won an eye roll instead, but he didn’t feel cheated.  “I need to go get my gear.  Meet you in the briefing room?” 

"You got it," Tony said, stepping back with one last wistful look at Bucky's lips before he turned and started barking instructions at JARVIS. 

It occurred to Bucky to wonder, as he jogged along the corridor that lead to his apartment, whether Steve was still in the tower or if he and Natasha had already left.  Once he'd wrangled the door open, never easy when he was rushing as he had a tendency to grip too hard, the rooms were echoing and empty.  Bucky lost no time strapping himself into his body armour and picking out his favourites from the gun locker.  If he needed anything specific, he could grab it from the armoury next to the briefing room.   

Ten minutes later he was heading back to the elevator.  "JARVIS, how is FIX-IT doing?" He asked as he waited for the car to arrive.  

"He has been able to provide me with a full diagnostic.  We estimate that it will take three and a half hours of repair work to return him to full functionality.  He wishes me to pass on his thanks, for aiding in his rescue." 

"Tell him that he's welcome.  Are BASH-IT and TAP-IT with him?" 

"They do not feel as comfortable leaving the Mansion Workshop," JARVIS said as the elevator arrived.  Bucky frowned. 

"That no good, he needs his friends around him to cheer him up.  Will you ask them if they'll consider making the journey?" 

"I can record a message for you to pass to them, if you like?" The AI suggested. 

"All right." Bucky agreed, chewing at his lip as he waited for inspiration to strike.  "Uh... hey guys, hope you're doing ok.  FIX-IT was damaged in a workshop accident, and I think he'd really appreciate it if you boys came over for a visit while he waits to be repaired."  He thought about the differences between the Mansion and the Tower and took a guess at what it was that bothered the little AIs.  "I know the Tower is a little scary compared to the mansion, but most of us will be out on a mission soon so you won't be spotted if you pop by now to see him.  Consider it, ok?  Humans don't like hospitals, but we visit our sick friends just the same because it helps them heal faster if they have their friends supporting them.  Uh... see you soon, bye!"  he finished as the elevator slowed to a halt, raising an eyebrow at the nearest camera when the doors didn't open.  "Was that ok?" 

"I found it enlightening, Sargent Barnes," the AI said softly.  "Thank you." 

He opened the doors and Bucky stepped out to see Clint coming out from the stairwell that lead to the landing pad. 

"Buckster!  Good to see you, man," the blond said with a cheerful grin.  He had a band-aid on his nose and what looked like the remains of an impressive black eye. 

"I thought you were in Iowa?" Bucky questioned as they fell into step on their way to the briefing room.  He wondered what the hell Clint had been doing in Iowa to get beaten up, but now probably wasn't the time to ask. 

"Yeah, I just got back, the Quinjet is being fuelled.  Any idea what the alert is about?" 

"No, and I don't know if we've got Cap or Widow either, they were leaving to go speak with the military.  Still, the meeting with the Fantastic Four went well this morning, JARVIS can probably call them in for backup if we need any." 

"Sure will be nice to have backup," Clint said cheerfully, scratching at his ear.  "One of the bad side effects about Shield going down was the sudden lack of support.  I know I was reluctant over the phone, but I've thought it over and I'm 100% on board.  I'm gonna go through my contacts list, see if there's anyone else that might consider being drawn in.  I think there might be a dude over in Hell's Kitchen, and there's also Wade, although he is a complete pain in my ass." 

"Who's Wade?" Bucky asked, pushing door to the briefing room open and waiting for Clint to go through. 

"He was a mercenary, now he's a super powered mercenary.  Those guys that went for Tony the other year, uh, A.I.M?  He's got it in for them, tore most of the way through their organisation." 

Steve and Natasha were not waiting for them in the briefing room, and a brief enquiry from JARVIS told them that they were already on their way to their first Military meet up and that the threat level wasn't counted as high enough to recall them as the AI had determined that Clint was about to arrive.  Tony and Thor arrived together, the Thunderer apparently in the middle of telling a story to a distracted Tony, a cheerful grin on his face. 

"My friend!" He boomed as soon as he caught sight of Clint.  "It will be good to fight beside you once more.  You have been missed!" 

"Miss you too buddy," Clint said awkwardly as he was enveloped in one of Thor's 'friendly' hugs.  Bucky was pretty sure that he heard his spine crack and winced in sympathy. 

"J, fill us in, why the alarm?" Tony asked, hovering by the head of the table without taking a seat. 

"Sir, we have had an alert from the NYPD that a gentleman identifying himself as "Sundown" has attacked Oscorp Tower," the AI said.  "I have accessed the original voice recording for the 911 call, and the scientist who sounded the alert identified Sundown as a Doctor Lowell, an employee of the company." 

"Known abilities?" Bucky asked. 

"Projecting footage now," the AI announced as the main screen flickered to life.  The assembled Avengers turned as one to study the images and extrapolate. 

"Did he just fire an energy beam with his palm?  I do not get paid enough for this," Clint muttered. 

"JARVIS, please play the bottom left image again, I believe that our target vanished," Thor said, squinting at the screen.  JARVIS dutifully started the clip over and Thor made a satisfied sound.  "I believe that he can teleport," he concluded. 

"And he can fly.  Pity you haven't got that skycycle worked out yet, Tony," Bucky said with a sideways glance at the billionaire. 

"Maybe next time," Tony said with a wink.  "Ok, game plan?  Cap isn't here to strategise, so my vote is for anyone but me; you've all either lead teams or helped lead teams in the past." 

"I vote Barton, Thor isn't as familiar with the City and I'm the new guy," Bucky put in his two cents, pleased when Thor nodded his agreement. 

"Not exactly new anymore, but thanks for the vote," Clint grumbled.  He straightened his shoulders and scanned the room, suddenly every inch the competent Shield agent he usually pretended that he wasn't.  "Ok, so he's clearly enhanced, let's load up on those Hulk tranqs that Banner was working on Barnes.  Don't want to kill him if we don't have to.  Iron Man, Thor, you work on containment.  If we can get him to stick to an area that's already evacuated, that would be good.  Maybe engage him one on one if you can Thor, Tony keep clear in case he can melt the armour with beam thing because I can't imagine that that would be pleasant." 

"You got it, Hawkeye," Tony said with a flippant salute, but the look in his eyes was oddly serious. 

"Alright, let's suit up.  Meet on the roof in five, Barnes, we'll take the Quinjet I just arrived in.  Thor, Iron Man, if you're ready to go head out, we'll see you there.  JARVIS, can you please contact the NYPD and ask them to form as wide a perimeter as they can manage, see if they can evacuate the surrounding buildings into the subway?" 

"Certainly, Agent Barton." 

James and Clint headed for the armoury as Tony and Thor raced along the corridor to the nearest balcony.  Bruce had been working on Hulk tranqs for a long time, they didn't always work on their intended target but they were extremely effective at subduing other enhanced individuals so he and Tony had worked them into the available arsenal.  Bucky still smiled when he remembered Steve's look of comic betrayal when he'd stuck him with a dart during an argument.  Stupid punk should have known that there was no way that Bucky was letting him out of the hospital until his broken leg had healed, super serum or no. 

Clint was busy swapping arrows out in his fancy spinning quiver, Bucky just picked up the tranq gun he preferred, the one with a tiny red dot on the side of the barrel to indicate that he'd called dibs – Hawkeye had marked his favourite in purple and Natasha had rolled her eyes at them both.  Two backup clips went into his thigh pocket and he was ready to go. 

"What kind of a name is Sundown?" Clint groused as they clattered up the stairs to the landing pad.  "Sounds like a mattress brand." 

"Maybe one of those records that help babies sleep?" Bucky suggested.  "The Villain names do seem to be getting more and more stupid the longer I'm with the team." 

He let Clint take the pilot's seat, pulling up a holographic map of the area around the Oscorp tower to check the sightlines.  A shaky display from Tony's helmet camera was playing on a side screen, and it was easy to see that the upper floors of the building were on fire. 

"If you drop me off here, and you land on the helipad there, I think we can cover the side of the building that is not yet a raging inferno," he suggested, leaning back so Clint could glance over.  JARVIS helpfully added two red crosses to the map in the designated spots. 

"All right," Clint confirmed, banking sharply as he changed course to drop Bucky off at his chosen perch.  "We should just about be able to see each other as well, in case the comms go down for whatever reason." 

"Thor," Bucky said firmly.  "Thor is almost always the reason." 

Two minutes later he was jumping from the back of the jet onto a gravel strewn roof, thankful that the prevailing wind direction was carrying the smoke to the left of his position.  He could see Thor on the ground by the front entrance herding groups of panicked civilians towards a nearby subway entrance and occasionally redirecting falling debris with his hammer.  Tony was using a laser to carve out the windows on one of the upper floors. 

"Iron Man, status," Clint's voice came over the coms.  The building that he had landed on had flashing cop cars surrounding the base of it, figures in black body armour pouring out. 

"I have eyes on the target, he seems to be monologuing," Tony reported.  "The person he is speaking with has spotted me, but he hasn't turned around yet.  I'm going for the element of surprise." 

"Thanks.  Thor, do we know how many more need to evacuate?" 

Bucky tuned out Thor's response, shifting to the edge of the roof with the tranq gun and setting up on the railing.  He set his eye to the sight and tracked across the windows until bright red and gold filled his vision.   The glass was soot stained and warping from Tony's efforts to get in, but despite errant reflections from the police lights he was able to make out a glowing figure and two people in blue lab coats.  "Eyes on target," he reported to the team, stifling a cough as the wind shifted, sending a wisp of smoke across his position.  "I'm in a position to back you up, Iron Man." 

"Acknowledged," Tony replied, continuing his efforts on the window. 

Bucky's throat felt scratchy, he wanted a sip of water but he didn't dare take his eye from the scope.  Sundown could turn at any moment, and if Tony was busy dodging he might not be able to fire.  Plus they had no idea what the repulsor blast would do to the man. 

The glass toppled inwards and Bucky saw as one of the scientists reacted, lifting their hands to their mouth.  Sundown spun, lifting one arm to attack and Tony dodged, one foot catching on the edge of the hole he had made and splintering the glass further. 

Bucky fired, and then watched in astonishment as the tranq dart seemed to explode just before it hit.  The blast of energy that had been meant for Tony caught the edge of the building and rubble sprayed into the air as the concrete under his feet trembled. 

"Winter, status!" Thor called sharply. 

"I'm fine," Bucky coughed, diving to the left away from another blast.  "Tranq melted."  For the first time, he wished that he'd kept the Hydra mask that had once been part of his uniform.  It had had a handy filter for situations just like this one. 

The coughing was slowing him down, he could feel the heat of a third blast against his back.  "Target has left the building," Tony reported.  "In pursuit. Hawkeye, the arrow you just shot hit, but the fluid in the cartridge seemed to spontaneously combust just before it reached him, he didn't get dosed." 

Panting, Bucky tried to find a clear patch of air, looking up to see if he could track Stark and Sundown with the rifle butt held firmly against his shoulder.  The wind shifted just in time for him to see them almost directly overhead.  Sundown fired again, Tony dodged with effortless grace and Bucky threw himself to the right half a second too late. 

The bright energy blast hit just above his wrist and his arm, the bright silver arm that he had never wanted but was now a part of him, shattered. 

Bucky screamed in agony through a throat already raw from smoke inhalation.  He was burning, he was immersed in ice, he was being sliced by razors as feathers tickled unbearably at the tender skin on the underside of an arm that he didn't even have any more.  Blood pounded in his temples as his vision swam and still he couldn't help the screams even though he could taste the blood as his vocal cords tore.  Terror at the threat of another blast forced his eyes open again.  Blurred black and pale gold against blue slowly resolved into Clint aiming his bow at him from the other rooftop, a twisted expression on his bruised face.  Bucky gasped and tried to clench his teeth through the shudders.  He couldn't get enough air, his chest constricted by burning metal bands as he tried to stop himself screaming for long enough to take a full breath.  The thud into the meat of his thigh was inconsequential compared to the pain spreading across his torso, a thousand rat's claws dipped in acid that prickled unbearably.  Black feathers waved across the blue sky in front of him and then blackness took him. 

 

He floats back to consciousness, each thought treacle slow as it wanders across his mind.  He is warm but there is an odd cold spot below his hip.  There are sounds, but none of them make any sense, other than the steady beeping of a... monitor.  A heart rate monitor.  Hydra didn't use heart rate monitors, he remembered.  They had a scientist with tinnitus who couldn't bear the sound, who was senior enough to ban them. 

Not Hydra, so he was probably safe. 

Bucky opened his eyes to white and pale green.  He looked down to find out what the cold spot was, but froze when he realised that his arm was gone.  Not blackened or missing a few plates, not twisted scrap metal, just gone.  Empty space that should be filled.  He could feel tremors starting as he struggled to process what he could see, so he shut his eyes, the red blackness not as calming as he had hoped. 

"Bucky?" Came a tentative voice.  "You're hyperventilating.  Can I touch you?" 

Tony.  That was Tony's voice. Bucky did his best to nod through the shivers, not trusting himself not to bite his tongue if he unclenched his jaw.  Warm hands brushed across his shoulder, one ending up pressed against his chest and the other between his shoulder blades. 

"Just breathe," Tony instructed, his hands a comforting weight against Bucky's skin, his ozone and cocoanut scent tickling at his nose.  "That's it.  In two three four five, out two three four five." 

They seemed to breathe together for a long time, until Bucky felt able to face his new reality again.  Tony was half out of one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs that always seemed to decorate medical facilities, his brown eyes wide and worried. 

"I'm so sorry," the engineer said quietly.  "I didn't realise you'd been hit until the screaming started, and by then I was too far away.  Clint knocked you out with one of the tranq arrows, you had a bit of a reaction so we're keeping the spot iced." 

That explained the cold by his hip.  "Clint made the right call," Bucky rasped.  "Water?" 

Tony nearly fell out of the chair as he twisted to pick up a squirt bottle.  "Here.  Take it slow." 

Surprised and thankful that Tony handed it to him rather than treating him like an invalid, Bucky rinsed his mouth out with the icy water and let it dribble down his abused throat.  "How long was I out?" He asked next, keeping a hold of the water for now. 

"Not long, Tony assured him.  "It's still the same day.  Clint got you back here, and then I removed your arm.  I was hoping that once it was disconnected the nerve feedback would stop?" 

Bucky nodded.  "There isn't any pain," he assured the engineer.  "What about Sundown?" 

"Turned himself in after accidentally killed a young girl who was running out of a coffee shop.  Turns out he knew her.  Hopefully we won't have to worry about him again." 

"Have you told Steve?" 

Tony grimaced.  "As soon as I had the arm off I called him.  He was mad that I hadn't called sooner of course, and then got all self-righteous when I pointed out that of course triaging the problem took priority." 

Bucky slumped back against the pillows.  "Let me guess, he wanted to know why you hadn't had JARVIS contact him straight away and then insinuated that he expected you to be better at multitasking.  Don't worry about him.  You were right to be completely focused on the team member who was hurt until the immediate danger had passed."  He could feel his voice get scratchier and hoarser towards the end of his impromptu pep talk and Tony frowned. 

"No more talking for you," he declared.  "I'll get DUM-E to make you a honey and lemon drink for your throat, he's good at those and it will make him feel useful.  I hear I have you to thank for TAP-IT and BASH-IT's presence in the tower?"  Bucky shrugged and then nodded.  Tony smiled crookedly at him.  "Thank you.  Ok, JARVIS can put a movie on for you if you want?"  Bucky nodded.  Tony climbed awkwardly out of the chair and hovered by the bed, eyes darting around the room.  "I'll be back as soon as I can, I took some scans of the arm port while you were out, I need to analyse what's left of the arm." 

Bucky frowned at him but Tony wasn't making eye contact as he backed towards the door.  

"Thumbs up for yes, thumbs down for no, JARVIS open up the film library for Bucky please." 

Bucky opened his mouth to ask a question but Tony was already out of the room and he knew that shouting after him would be a terrible idea.  The blank widescreen across from his bed flickered into life and JARVIS began highlighting the files one by one. 

He had settled on the Disney animated Beauty and the Beast and was wondering which story Belle was describing when DUM-E nudged his way into the room, a sports bottle clenched in his claw.  JARVIS automatically paused the film, because he was awesome like that. 

"Is that for me?" Bucky rasped, a grin on his face.  "Thank you." 

DUM-E rolled closer and slowly lowered the bottle into Tony's lap.  Bucky was quick to scoop it up with his remaining arm and take a mouthful, the sweet and tangy liquid rolling over his tongue and coating his throat. 

"Mmm, feels better already," he said, setting the bottle down so that he could reach out and pat DUM-E's claw.  "Do you have to get back to Tony or do you want to watch the film with me?" 

DUM-E rotated to look up at the TV and then let out a loud beep.  He shifted to settle back by the head of the bed and angled his main camera to focus on the screen. 

"DUM-E has transmitted to me that he is grateful for the invitation and will enjoy watching with you, Sargent Barnes," JARVIS said quietly.  "Sir has no need of him at present." 

"Ok, it'll be nice to have company.  Play the movie from the beginning again please," Bucky instructed, settling back to watch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Right, warnings.  So, Bucky gets hurt and loses his arm pretty terribly.  I had a jaw operation as a teenager and they damaged some nerves in my lip and chin (I was warned that this could happen, this is not a medical malpractice story).  I basically took what that felt like/feels like sometimes and multiplied it by 100 and that's what I'm describing Bucky going through.  If you don't want to read it, skip the paragraph that starts 'Bucky screamed'.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A somewhat fluffier chapter to make up for the last one.

It had taken him over an hour of painstakingly typing out text messages with one hand, but Bucky had managed to persuade Steve not to come back early, repeatedly pointing out that he was fine and that cancelling or postponing the trip would do more harm than good. The tower was a boring place to be injured. The medical rooms were all internal, which meant he couldn't even look out of a window, and he was worried about Tony. The engineer had been more skittish than usual, dropping by every few hours to babble about something inconsequential before backing back out the door insisting that Bucky not stress this throat by answering.

 

It took less than twenty four hours for him to reach his limit and escape from under the watchful eye of Tony's on call nurses, honey and lemon drink in hand although his throat had already healed thanks to the serum, and DUM-E trailing after him like an oversized puppy.

 

The Tower seemed oddly empty. After an awkward and unwanted apology for shooting him without permission, which Bucky strongly suspected was Steve's fault, Clint had gone to check out something in Bed-Stuey and make an attempt at contacting his acquaintance Wade. Thor had dropped by first thing that morning with an alarmingly large basket of fruit and announced that he was going to visit his Jane, although he promised to keep his phone on him at all times should the team need his assistance.

 

DUM-E followed him closely chirping in distress as he made his way to the elevator bank, stepping carefully as his muscles kept on trying to automatically compensate for a weight that wasn't there anymore. The robot seemed torn between staying glued to his side and racing ahead to press the button.

 

"JARVIS, is Tony in the workshop or at the Mansion?" Bucky asked.

 

"Sir is currently at the Mansion," JARVIS said immediately. Bucky was used to an almost imperceptible delay while JARVIS' audio circuits picked up his request, the AI must have been monitoring him for some reason. He usually only got this sort of instant response when he was with Tony.

 

"Are you keeping an eye on me?" He asked as the elevator arrived and DUM-E rushed to enter first.

 

"I was... concerned," the AI confessed reluctantly. "My research indicates that losing a body part is considered an extremely traumatic and life changing event."

 

Bucky repressed his first impulse, which was to wave away JARVIS' worry. That wasn't fair to the AI, it wasn't like he interacted with the most normal human beings on the planet. "Thank you for your concern JARVIS," he said instead. "As I lost the original limb some time ago, I've been able to process missing the replacement quite quickly."

 

"And Disney movies helped with that?" Bucky was surprised that JARVIS was continuing the discussion, but after a moment of shock decided that he was flattered that JARVIS was trying to understand the way that he dealt with the world.

 

"Children's films aren't very mentally taxing, not too many plot lines to keep track of, simplistic story arcs," he explained. "They're ideal to occupy your surface thoughts while your subconscious assimilates the deeper issue. It was something that Sam recommended when they first found me."

 

"Mr Wilson does seem very knowledgeable in this area," JARVIS commented, opening the door of the lab for Bucky so that he didn't have to balance and push at the same time.

 

FIX-IT, TAP-IT and BASH-IT immediately started a chorus of excited beeping at the sight of him and he detoured from his path to say hi to them.

 

"Hey guys! I guess Tony got a little distracted from fixing you buddy, sorry about that." He paused while FIX-IT did his best to communicate what was probably 'no problem' through sign language with a damaged claw. BASH-IT and TAP-IT drove in semi-circles around his left side, their cameras fixed on the shoulder socket.

 

"It's ok," he tried to reassure them. "Tony is going to build me a new one, or at least I think that's what all the half started sentences and awkward behaviour indicate. I'm guessing that someone reacted badly to a gift in the past and that's why he's being all weird about it?"

 

The three robots didn't react, but DUM-E's claw arm drooped sadly and nodded.

 

"Sir's relationship with Ms Potts was sometimes... difficult," JARVIS said delicately.

 

"Well, I ain't going to be anythin' but grateful," Bucky promised them with memories of his little sister opening her birthday presents running through his mind, a little faded now but the bright colours still shone through. "All right, I best get to it. Are you going to stay in here?"

 

There was a brief discussion between the four AIs and Bucky waited patiently. Eventually, TAP-IT separated himself from the other two and gave two loud beeps. "Tag, you're it, huh?" Bucky asked him. "All right. FIX-IT, I'll ask Tony if there's anything I can do to help fix you while he's working on the arm, ok? Maybe DUM-E and U will be able to help me."

 

FIX-IT waved his arm awkwardly and Bucky grinned back, sure that the little bot could see it. TAP-IT was already by the hidden door, although rather than using the palm activator that Tony had shown him, the bot had shifted a small panel in the skirting board and was tapping at a tiny keypad that had been hidden behind it. By the time Bucky had made his awkward way across the room the door had opened and TAP-IT was waiting patiently inside for him.

 

The smell of cigars was notable only by is absence, and Bucky offered the little bot a high five. "You got the smell out! Well, I don’t know if it was you specifically, but give me a high five anyway." TAP-IT squealed in delight and enthusiastically batted Bucky's hand with his claw.

 

"It was a joint effort, Sargent Barnes," JARVIS said dryly as they reached the tunnel. "SWIF-E the cleaning robot was also involved."

 

Tony was not as pleased to see him as Bucky had expected. Instead of offering welcoming smile, the engineer spun on the spot to face him, paled, dropped the hammer he was holding on his own foot, cursed vehemently in Italian and limped across the workshop only to screech to a halt without following through on whatever gesture he had originally intended on. Bucky suspected that he had been going to take him by the shoulders and shake him.

 

"What are you doing here? Why aren't you in bed?" He demanded, eyes flicking all over the place. Bucky looked down at the Stark Industries sweatpants and plain white tank top he was wearing.

 

"I'm not exactly wandering around in hospital scrubs, Tony," he pointed out. "It's just the arm, the rest of me is absolutely fine. I was bored, and I wanted to see what you were up to."

 

Tony leapt backwards and spread his arms wide in front of one of the workbenches. "Nothing to see here!" He announced, brown eyes wide with panic. "TAP-IT, there you are, get a sheet or something to cover this up. It does not need to be seen!"

 

"Is that my arm?" Bucky asked, craning his head to see around Tony and nearly overbalancing. Robot and Inventor made almost identical squeaks of alarm and both rushed forward to try and catch him. Not that he needed it, he managed to right himself without pulling any muscles and straightened to find that Tony's new position revealed what had been on the workbench behind him.

 

It was his arm, or what was left of it. If Bucky hadn't been so familiar with it in the first place, he would hardly have recognised the twisted metal for his appendage. The hand and wrist seemed to have taken the worst of the damage, the silver dulled under a layer of black carbon from the hydraulics burning, the delicate gears and servos frozen into improbable positions. Higher up the forearm panels were cracked and missing, the delicate internal wires exposed and melted into a congealed mess of heatshrink and copper.

 

Tony was hovering and waiting for a reaction, so he said the first thing that came to mind. "Well, I'm glad I didn't wake up to that."

 

"W-what?"

 

Bucky gestured towards the table. "I'm glad I didn't wake up with it still attached. That's nightmare fuel, right there. Can I see the designs you've come up with for the replacement please?"

 

"How did you...?"

 

Tony looked a little lost, hunched in on himself. He had a smear of soot on his cheek, his eyes looked bruised and his hair was standing on end. His hands with their clever fingers were bunched into the denim of his well worn jeans, and Bucky had never seen him so unsure. He stepped closer, and wrapped his remaining arm around Tony's shoulders.

 

"I know you," he reminded the engineer. "You've been wanting to 'upgrade' me for months, since before we became friends I expect. It's how your mind works, and I don't have a problem with that, doll. So, show me what your beautiful mind has come up with so far." After a beat Tony relaxed against him, resting his head briefly against Bucky's shoulder. "Tony, when's the last time you slept?"

 

"Probably too long ago, but I had to get this done, and FIX-IT still needs repairing, there's just so much that I can't – I don’t... you know," Tony trailed off in a mumble.

 

"Ok, first you show me the arm design, then you go take a nap upstairs. Give JARVIS permission to share the plans to help FIX-IT with me and I'll make a start."

 

"You don't have to!" Tony protested, pulling away, although Bucky could tell that he was reluctant.

 

"I want to," Bucky said firmly.

 

The nearest monitor flickered to life, showing four different designs rotating slowly. They were all beautiful, but Bucky was drawn to the one that was close to his original silver, but with dark blue highlights. He took a moment to contemplate the others, a sleek black and gold affair, a plan silver and one that gleaned gunmetal grey on the screen, but eventually decided to stick with his gut and go with his first impulse.

 

"Option C please, Mister Stark!"

 

Tony let out a relieved huff. "I was worried that you wouldn't like any of them," he confessed, reaching out to select Bucky's chosen design. "JARVIS, start production of the exterior plates please."

 

He grabbed Bucky by the wrist and dragged him over to another workbench, where delicate wires and tiny circuit boards were spread around, not even remotely resembling an arm. "I'm trying to incorporate the technology from Natasha's Widow's Bites into the forearm," he explained, gesturing at a series of glowing capsules that were wired up to a slightly battered arc reactor.

 

"Tony, this is awesome, it really is, but you need to sleep," Bucky protested. "How about we go upstairs and you can nap in the mansion while I explore, then we'll find some food. Sound ok? TAP-IT can give me the grand tour."

 

He expected Tony to argue with him, but the stress of the last two days must have caught up with the inventor because he just nodded. Hardly daring to believe it, Bucky lead the way towards the door at the back of the workshop that lead to the internal staircase.

 

Although he'd been spending so much time in the basement, he'd only been in the lobby of the main house, and that was because he was accepting a pizza delivery from a very confused teenager. It was a grand room, with fancy marble floors and more moulding than really belonged on one ceiling. Their footsteps echoed as Tony headed for the main staircase on autopilot, running his hand up the polished wood of the bannister as he took the stairs carefully. Bucky matched his pace, slightly worried that in his sleep-deprived state he would miss one of the stairs and Bucky would have to perform an ill advised one armed catch to prevent him from smashing his skull open on the expensive floor.

 

They reached the top without incident and Bucky was confronted with a long hallway lined with identical doors. The walls were lined with artwork and small tables containing various trinkets and the lingering scent of lemons in the air indicated that the woodwork had been recently polished. Although everything was clean and bright, with a soft breeze coming through the open window at the other end of the hall, the building felt empty. Bucky couldn't smell anything other than the polish, no lingering food smells or perfumes.

 

A door ahead of them opened slowly, and a small robot extended their camera around the edge.

 

"Hey TURBO, how are you?" Tony asked. "Have you finished painting the blue room?"

 

TURBO beeped their assent and rolled into the corridor. Bucky suppressed a smile when he realised that the robot, about the size of a St Bernard, was covered in splashes of paint creating a multicoloured shell on their back.

 

"TURBO has been heading the house renovation," Tony explained, stifling a yawn. "Buddy, I think I'm going to lie down in the master suite for a few hours, will you show Bucky here around the house?"

 

Another beep, louder this time, and TURBO zoomed down the corridor, their wheels moving smoothly across the worn rugs.

 

"Does TURBO identify as male or female?" Bucky asked, studying the way that the robot moved to open the door, claw hands far more articulated than the basic design that DUM-E and U had installed.

 

"Neither," Tony answered through another yawn. "They're just TURBO. I don’t like using 'it' to describe my robots."

 

"It is not an acceptable way to refer to something that's alive," Bucky agreed, pausing in the open door to the master bedroom. Unlike the ornate entry hall and corridor, which looked more like something from a museum than a home, this room was simpler. There were still touches of luxury everywhere, carved wooden curtain poles held heavy blue velvet drapes and the king sized bed had four posters and more drapes, this time of a lighter material, but the walls themselves were painted creamy yellow and there was only one picture, a landscape that reminded Bucky of rural Italy.

 

"Do you like it?" Tony asked from his perch on the bench at the end of the bed. He had paused halfway through unlacing his shoes to check on Bucky's reaction.

 

"It's a great room. I take it that it didn't use to look like this?"

 

Tony shook his head. "Nope, it used to be unbearably fussy," he said with a smile at TURBO. "TURBO and the rest of the house team sorted it out."

 

"They did a fantastic job," Bucky said seriously. "Bedrooms should be places to relax in, they shouldn't be too busy. This is perfect, TURBO you can decorate my house if I ever get around to buying one." When he looked back at Tony he was surprised to see the Engineer's tired eyes were wide with something like fear. "What's wrong?"

 

"You... you're planning on moving out of the tower?" Tony asked.

 

"Not any time soon," Bucky hastened to add. "I just... I guess one day I'll retire, and when I do I'd like a house, and a bedroom like this one – although probably on a smaller scale."

 

Tony nodded, chewing at his lip. "You're welcome to pick a room here," he offered hesitantly. "I mean, there's enough of them, and I know that the space you're in was Steve's first, and that's not always easy, moving into someone else's rooms. I was going to give you your own apartment at the tower, but back when you first arrived I suggested it to Steve and he hit the roof so... anyway, if you want some space here, you're welcome to it. TURBO and the team will decorate it any colour you like, they love painting. We're still working on wallpaper, it's a bit more tricky."

 

"Let me think about it," Bucky proposed, the thought of having his own space a little overwhelming all of a sudden.

 

Tony nodded, throwing himself on top of the covers in his jeans and t-shirt and closing his eyes. "Ok. Wake me in an hour," the engineer instructed.

 

"Sweet dreams," Bucky replied, waiting for TURBO to finish tugging the curtains closed before preceding the bot out of the room.

 

He crouched down once they were back in the long hallway, so that he could look straight into the main camera. "Ok, feel like giving me the grand tour?" He asked. "I don't want to take up your time if you were in the middle of something, I know you weren't expecting me."

 

TURBO whirred in consideration, and then grabbed at Bucky's sleeve and towed him back towards the room they'd first come out of. Bucky expected another bedroom, but the room was a lounge. The furniture, two sofas and what looked like several small tables, were all liberally draped in white fabric.

 

"Hi, I'm Bucky," Bucky introduced himself to the two robots that were hard at work using rollers to paint the panelling on the wall around the window. They'd already sanded the wood, judging by the amount of sawdust littering the stained carpet, and were now hard at work coating the timbers in a generous layer of mint green paint.

 

TURBO let out an enquiring chirrup and they both waved a free claw arm at him, not pausing in their work. Bucky wandered a little closer, in order to read that their names were WAX-ON and WAX-OFF. He had a feeling that that was a reference to something, but whatever it was he hadn't come across it yet.

 

"I like the colour, it really brightens up the room," he praised them. "Tony said that you guys picked it out yourselves, I think you've got good taste."

 

All three robots cheeped in satisfaction and TURBO waved at him again, before rolling over to a stack of cardboard boxes. Taking the hint, Bucky opened the top one and was presented with a pile of fabric in a slightly darker shade of green with peach and cream flowers embroidered on it.

 

"Oh, I think these will go nicely. Are you going to have the sofa reupholstered too?"

 

TURBO made a see-saw motion with their arm, which Bucky took to mean that they hadn't decided yet.

 

"Maybe see how the rest of the room looks first?" He suggested, and got a chirp in response. "Will you show me your favourite room?" He asked next.

 

TURBO let out the loudest beep they had made yet and gripped Bucky's sleeve again before speeding out of the room fast enough that Bucky had to lengthen his stride to keep up. They went up another, narrower flight of stairs to a long attic room that was set up as a sort of games room, with dark blue and purple walls, rainbow glass light fittings and a massive projector screen that belonged in a cinema. There was a pool table and a darts board and the floor was covered in sheepskin rugs. Knitted afghans lay on the butter soft leather sofas and there was what Bucky recognised as a pinball machine against the far wall.

 

"This room is awesome," Bucky said, looking around. "Wow, there's so much to do here! Pity I can't do most of it with only one arm."

 

TURBO let out what sounded suspiciously like a raspberry and pulled him towards a cupboard standing under one of the angled windows. They pulled out a box with 'snakes and ladders' stencilled across the top and shook it questioningly.

 

"You're right, I guess I can play a board game with one arm," Bucky agreed, sitting on the nearest fleece and watching with interest as TURBO pulled the box open. "I think I even recognise this game, Mrs Collins across the hall had it. Not as many colours as this one has though!"

 

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Board games and fixing things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the delay in updating everyone! First I was on holiday with limited internet and no computer, and then life got rather hectic when I got back. We're getting to the end of the story I had planned, another chapter or two to go after this one. Enjoy!

Once they had finished with Snakes 'n' Ladders – TURBO had kicked his ass hard – they had a go at checkers (Bucky won by a narrow margin) and finally had a game of dominos. After the first hour TURBO had given a soft, inquiring beep, but Bucky had shaken his head.

 

"He needs to sleep," he'd said, and the robot must have agreed with him because TURBO seemed happy to turn their attention back to the game. Golden light was spilling through the tall windows by the time they tidied the games away and headed back down the stairs, and Bucky's stomach was growling audibly.

 

"I'm thinking Mexican food," Bucky said as he followed TURBO down the stairs. "JARVIS, are you able to order us Mexican food? Nachos and a selection of burritos?"

 

"Would you also like the case of Mexican beer that Sir usually orders?" JARVIS asked. "He has expressed a strong preference for matching Mexican beer with Mexican food in the past."

 

"Sure thing, go for it," Bucky agreed. "I'm starving."

 

"Food will be delivered within 30 minutes," JARVIS promised.

 

"Great! Thank you. I'll wake Tony up – TURBO which room was it again please?" TURBO tapped on the door to the master suite as they rolled past, heading back to the lounge to continue with the decoration Bucky supposed. "Thank you for playing with me," he called after the robot, who paused to listen. "I had a really nice time."

 

TURBO beeped twice and whistled three times. It took Bucky a moment to recognise the morse code for 2, and by the time he had figured out what TURBO meant the lounge door was closing behind the paint splattered robot.

 

"That was nice of them," he said, half to himself and half to JARVIS.

 

He opened the door to the master suite slowly, not wanting to startle Tony if he was awake. It took his eyes half a second to adjust to the dim room, but the bundled lump under the covers slowly resolved into the engineer, curled on his side. Sleep smoothed the worry lines from his face, and although he still looked absolutely shattered, Bucky could also see that he had somehow lost weight in just the past few days. Food, and then more sleep, he decided. Maybe if he suggested that he himself was tired he could get Tony to take a nap with him.

 

He stepped softly towards the bed, not wanting to startle the sleeping man, and hovered a few feet away weighing his options. Should he touch him? Speak? Change the amount of light in the room? Eventually he decided to go with sound. Tony should be used to JARVIS waking him, to electronic alarm clocks and reminders. Sound probably wouldn't shock him too badly.

 

"Tony," he called, keeping his voice low. "Hey sleepyhead, I ordered Mexican food. Time to get up and eat burritos."

 

"Mexican beer," Tony muttered, scrunching his nose.

 

"JARVIS told me, we ordered some."

 

"J's the best."

 

Tony yawned and lifted himself up on his elbow, rubbing at his eyes. "It's been an hour already?"

 

Bucky shrugged, and decided that Tony was awake enough to say something if he had a problem with Bucky parking himself on the bed. He walked a little closer and perched on the edge of the mattress for a moment, then leant back against one of the smooth carved posts and smiled at the rumpled sight in front of him. "Not sure, I lost track of time playing games with TURBO up in the attic. Came down because I'm starving and I'm also pretty sure they cheat at dominos."

 

"Did you say you ordered Mexican Food?" Tony asked, looking a little more alert as he peered at his watch. "I slept for two and a half hours. I'm starving. Let's go to the kitchen."

 

"Lead the way," Bucky grinned. "I'd only get lost."

 

"The house isn't that big," Tony grumbled as he lead the way out of the room, rubbing at his hair.

 

"It's called a _Mansion_ ," Bucky pointed out. "The clue is in the title. My first apartment could have fitted into that bedroom with room to spare, you know."

 

Tony glanced back at him, mouth half open as if to say something, but then a strange, almost guilty look crossed his face and he looked away. "Thank you for ordering food. I'm a terrible host," he said instead.

 

"Gotta get the junk food in while I can, soon enough Steve will be back and harassing me to eat healthily," Bucky sighed as they reached the lobby and turned left to follow a hallway that led under the stairs. "It's a miracle that I managed to persuade him not to rush back yesterday. He hasn't been giving the rest of you a hard time has he?"

 

Bucky had his suspicions, decades of friendship with Steve Rogers had given him a good idea of how the man operated. He left the question hanging, hoping that Tony would take the bait and open up to him. The kiss that they had shared had been fantastic, but before they moved any further he wanted to prove that he could and would happily take a side against Steve when the occasion called for it in his personal life as well as his professional one.

 

"He called a few times," Tony said after a long moment. "He, ah, was pretty upset. Said that we were terrible backup and needed to do better and... stuff."

 

Bucky frowned, reaching out to pull Tony to a halt with his remaining arm and spin him so that they were face to face. "Steve is an ass," he said slowly and clearly, unable to hold back a grin as Tony's honey brown eyes widened in surprise. "He had no right to say that to you and make you feel like crap. Did you shoot me? No, the bad guy did when I didn't dodge. Clint shot me, but that was a good thing and he's already given me a completely unwarranted and unwanted apology for that."

 

Tony huffed out a laugh and leant into Bucky's shoulder for a moment before pulling back and continuing down the corridor.

 

"Is that why you've been working non-stop on the new arm?" Bucky asked, trying to keep his voice light and judgement free. "Not that it isn't fantastic, because it is, but FIX-IT is still in bits – I wanted to ask if there was anything I could do to help him while you help me?"

 

Tony stopped so suddenly that Bucky nearly ran into him. "You... you would do that?" The shorter man asked, joy and hope spreading across his face. He flung himself at Bucky, who braced just in time to receive an armful of Tony pressing an enthusiastic kiss to his cheek before burying his face in his neck.

 

"Of course I would," Bucky said into Tony's hair. "I felt terrible when I saw the little guy."

 

"He insisted I fix you first," Tony explained as he pulled away, "this is it." He pushed open the door to the kitchen and Bucky, who had been expecting white tiled walls and chrome fittings, was surprised and pleased to find sunshine yellow walls and pale wood fronted cabinets.

 

"Did TURBO and the crew do this one too?" He asked.

 

"Ah, no, that was Ana, the wife of the original Jarvis. Yellow was her favourite colour for a kitchen."

 

Tony regaled Bucky with stories of Ana and Jarvis and growing up in the Mansion until the burritos and beer arrived, at which point they both fell on the food like starving wolves and completely lost the thread of the conversation.

 

Finally sated, Bucky reached for a napkin to wipe his face and sat back with a pleased groan. "That was awesome, we should order from there more often," he declared. "I know we talked about FIX-IT but I'm going to need a nap after all that indulgence. Care to join me?"

 

Tony's hesitation was obvious, longing and guilt warring for dominance on his exhausted face. Bucky let him think about it for a long moment before pulling out the big guns.

 

He ducked his head a little, as if embarrassed, and looked at Tony out of the corner of his eye. "Please?"

 

Tony caved faster than the Fort he had Steve had once tried to make from broken pallets and rotting tree branches when they were children.

 

Bucky was determined not to make this awkward so he followed Tony's lead, gathering up the wrappers and scooping them into the trash, washing their hands at the giant stone sunk in the corner of the kitchen before heading back up the stairs. Tony lead the way back up to the master bedroom and hesitated a moment, staring at the bed as Bucky bent down to unlace his shoes.

 

"Jeans off?" he eventually asked, turning to look at the Soldier.

 

"It'll be comfier," Bucky agreed. "I'm cool if you are."

 

Tony muttered something that contained the words 'two consenting adults' and quickly stripped out of his jeans, tossing them onto a nearby chair and sliding under the covers in t-shirt and boxers. Keeping his face carefully neutral Bucky followed suit. "Close your eyes," he murmured, unable to repress a smile as Tony obeyed with a soft sigh. He wanted to stay awake for a while, to enjoy this moment and hope that it was merely the first of many, but already sleep was tugging at him and he couldn't repress a yawn.

 

"Go to sleep," Tony muttered with his eyes closed. "This was your idea."

 

*

 

Bucky woke feeling better rested than he had in ages. Tony was still dead to the world, the lines in his face smoother and the bruises under his eyes already looking lighter. As much as he wanted to lay there and study the engineers familiar face, his bladder had other ideas. Instead he slipped out of bed and padded across to the en suite to relieve himself and rise the fuzz from his teeth. He found a bottle of the most aggressive mouthwash he had ever encountered to help with the latter and slipped back into the room with his mouth full of burning cold fire.

 

Tony shifted as he slipped back into the warm bed, brown eyes slowly blinking open. "What time is it?"

 

Bucky shrugged. "No idea," he confessed. "You're the one with a watch. Finding out isn't really high on my priorities list right now."

 

"Oh? And what is?" Tony asked, smiling.

 

"Kissing you?" Bucky hadn't intended for that to be a question, but something in Tony's sleepy relaxed face had made it come out as one.

 

"I am a fan of that priority," Tony agreed, shifting up on one elbow to meet Bucky half way.

 

They shared a long, chaste morning kiss, soft in all the ways that the best morning kisses were, and then Tony pulled back and raised an eyebrow. "You risked the demon mouthwash?" he asked, and Bucky collapsed back into the pillows to chuckle.

 

"Much as I'd love to continue," Tony said with a pointed glance down, "I'd rather our first time be when we both have all our limbs."

 

Bucky wanted to argue, but Tony reached out and pressed two calloused fingers to his lips. "You are hot like burning," he said seriously. "Please do not argue or I will give in and hate myself. OK?"

 

Bucky nodded and pressed a kiss to Tony's fingers before they were removed. "How long before you can have the arm installed?" he asked instead.

 

"I should be ready to do a test fit in about five hours."

 

Bucky grinned. "OK. Will it be easier to work on FIX-IT at the Tower or here?"

 

Tony shrugged. "All my workshops have the same tools in them."

 

"Ok, I'll go over and start figuring out where to start. JARVIS will help, and DUM-E knows what all the tools are called, right?"

 

"Hes a pretty good workshop assistant now," Tony agreed, rolling out of bed and shaking out his jeans before he stepped into them. Bucky admired the view for a moment before following suit. It was a little awkward to dress one handed, but he was flexible and deremined so he made it work. He looked up once he was dressed and caught Tony giving him an appreciative once over from the bathroom door before the engineer coughed and lead the way out of the room.

 

He left Tony in the kitchen making himself a breakfast smoothie and took the stairs down to the underground train two at a time. Tony might be satisfied with a smoothie, but Bucky was craving a cream cheese bagel or three and he knew that there would be an ample supply of baked goods in the communal kitchen.

 

It was hard to walk past FIX-IT for a second time, but his stomach was growling and he knew that he'd do a better job after some food. "I'll be right back to take a look at you," he promised instead, smiling all the robots in the vicinity let out a chorus of excited beeps.

 

"JARVIS, is anyone else in the Tower?" he asked once safely in the elevator.

 

"Agent Barton returned this morning," JARVIS revealed.

 

"Great. Ask him if he wants a bagel?"

 

"Certainly, sir." there was a short pause before JARVIS continued. "He has advised that he will put the coffee on."

 

The doors opened into the communal level, where Clint was fiddling with Tony's fancy expresso machine.

 

"Nice to see you on your feet, Barnes," he called over his shoulder.

 

"Nice to be on them," Bucky replied, pulling bagels from the bread bin. "I was going to have cream cheese, that cool with you?"

 

"Mmmm... Whip some cinnamon in with the cream cheese and slice up some apples," Clint suggested, grinning at Bucky's raised eyebrow. "Trust me it's delicious."

 

"Scuttlebut is that you'll eat dumpster pizza," Bucky retorted, searching through the spice rack for the cinnamon.

 

Clint rolled his eyes. "That was one time! And I hadn't eaten in two days."

 

Bucky considered that. "Was it still in the box? If so, fair enough."

 

"it was still in the box," Clint vowed. "Steamer."

 

Bucky braced himself for the scream of the pressurised steam as he sliced the bagels and dropped them into the toaster. The container of cream cheese slid along the counter, stopping neatly right next to his elbow. There was only half left so he just dumped a teaspoon of cinnamon in rather than dirtying another bowl. The resulting smell was different, but not unpleasant so he was prepared to admit that trusting Clint hadn't been a terrible call after all.

 

The archer set a steaming mug of coffee in front of him and took over smearing the toasted bagels with the doctored cream cheese while Bucky sliced an apple. "How many bagels did you do?" he asked as he peered into the industrial toaster.

 

"Four," Bucky grinned. "I'm starving."

 

"We can always do another one," Clint pointed out, getting a plate down to place the first bagel on. Bucky laid thinly sliced apple on the top and resisted the urge to just take a bite out of it. Clint worked fast, and it didn't take long for them to have a large plate of bagels to share at the kitchen island, washing down the chewy dough with sips of coffee.

 

"I wanted to let you know that I'm going to talk to Steve about the mother hen routine," he said when they were both on their second bagel. "He's been giving both you and Tony way too much shit for me getting hurt."

 

Clint stared at him for a long moment, and then nodded once. "I managed to find Wade," he changed the subject. "It was... interesting, but I got the guy's number. We may find him in the kitchen making pancakes one day."

 

"You recon he can get in here?"

 

The archer shrugged and licked cream cheese from his thumb. "You can get into a lot of places when you don't mind losing a few fingers and Wilson? He just grows them back in a few hours."

 

Bucky whistled. "What version of the serum did he get?" He asked.

 

"I don't think it was a serum at all, more like a forced natural mutation?" Clint said uncertainly. "He doesn't like to talk about it, which is odd because usually he won't shut up. Just accept him for what he is and he's cool enough. Good backup, if he's specifically agreed to do something. A little grey on the ethics scale, but I figure that most of us can relate."

 

Bucky snorted, biting into his fifth bagel half. Clint had polished off three and looked like he was considering another cup of coffee. "I'm going to be in the workshop for the rest of the day," he said. "Might even have two arms again by tomorrow."rms again

 

"Ooh, you'll have to let me know all the cool things that Tony puts in," Clint grinned. "Some of the modifications to my bows over the years..." He sighed happily. "Anyhow, I'll be in the range if you want me, then the gym, and then on the sofa watching Dog Cops."

 

Bucky shook his head. "Give me Star Trek any day."

 

Clint wrinkled his nose. "Who the hell got you watching that? It goes on forever! Was it Sam? I knew he was a closet geek."

 

"Natasha," Bucky revealed, mostly to watch the shock on Clint's face.

 

"You think you know a person," the blond groused. "Ok Sniper-Bro, I shall catch you later."

 

"Later."

 

Bucky took a minute to clear the table and load the dishwasher before swiping a chilled bottle of orange juice from the icebox and heading down to the workshop, determined to do something to at least get FIX-IT mobile again. The little bot had been stuck for long enough.

 

*

 

Several long hours later, there was a dull ache in the small of his back and FIX-IT could control his wheels again. Bucky had used Tony's smallest welder to make a new subframe for the little bot, DUM-E carefully keeping the metal in place while Bucky welded with his right arm. They weren't the cleanest welds in the world, but Bucky thought they were pretty good for a one armed man and a one armed robot. Then they had detached the suspension by simply cutting it out of the old frame – once JARVIS had assured him that it wouldn't hurt the little guy. Next it was simply a case of unscrewing the old, broken parts and lifting FIX-IT onto the new frame and screwing it in place, refixing the suspension mounts with a few spot welds. With JARVIS' help, he set up FIX-IT's 4 wheel drive system and DUM-E provided leverage as they changed the tyre that had got shredded.

 

"All right," he groaned, sitting back on his heels and rubbing at his sore spine. "That should get you moving again, although your casing is still completely busted and you're going to need to have a new one fabricated and fitted. Try moving forward two feet, ok?"

 

DUM-E whirred encouragingly as FIX-IT sat for a moment, clicking the focus on his main camera. Then, slowly he started to inch forwards the requested two feet, gaining confidence after the first few inches. Bucky's cheeks hurt from grinning, and he gave DUM-E a high five as FIX-IT began to turn in cautious circles around the workshop, followed closely by BASH-IT.

 

"That's fantastic! Shall we go down to the Mansion and show Tony?" He suggested. BASH-IT cheeped and rolled over to activate the hidden elevator. Bucky and DUM-E paced FIX-IT as he made his slow way over to the door, where his fellow bot was waiting patiently. "DUM-E, are you going to stay here?" Bucky asked as the larger bot began to hang back.

 

"Sir has expressed a preference for DUM-E to remain in the tower," JARVIS helpfully interjected. "He is able to act as my hands in case of emergency."

 

"Fair enough. I'll see you late then DUM-E. Would you mind putting the tools we used away?"

 

DUM-E used his claw to nod enthusiastically and rolled back to the bench they had been working on at his top speed. BASH-IT activated the elevator, and down they went.

 

Bucky looked down at the little robot resting by his ankle and felt a flutter of nerves. "I hope he approves of what I did," he said, more to himself than the robot.

 

"I'm sure that Sir will be happy with your repairs," JARVIS said quietly. "I have scanned FIX-IT's new dimensions and attachment points, and I will superimpose them over the blueprint for his exoshell and highlight areas that will require modification."

 

"FIX-IT, do you want me to help with your new look as well?" Bucky asked the robot, who waved his claw arm in assent.

 

"All right. I might need my arm for that bit though, so let's go see what your dad has cooked up for me."


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve redeems himself.

Bucky had decidedly mixed feelings as he stood in the communal lounge waiting for Steve to appear. He had been at the Mansion all morning while Tony made adjustments to his new arm and had him stick electrodes all over his head and pick up a screwdriver with his right hand multiple times, all the while planning upgrades and showing him the various scaled down missiles that he'd developed for his suits. The engineer was still in the mansion, Tony wanting to work the last few glitches out before he officially installed his new limb later that afternoon.

The Engineer had looked a little hunted when JARVIS had announced that Captain Rogers was inbound, all wide eyes and tense shoulders, so Bucky had quickly left the motorbike he had been tinkering with to brush a featherlight kiss on the top of his shoulder and offer to be the welcome party.

It wasn't that Bucky wasn't looking forward to seeing Steve, it was the blond's reaction to the missing appendage that was worrying him. That and that he seemed to have been harassing the rest of the team from afar, which just wasn't on. Back during the War, Bucky had gotten used to being a buffer between Steve and the rest of the Howling Commandos. Although reprising that role hadn't been something that he'd been looking to do, it was becoming clear to him that someone needed to do it - before Steve and his misplaced concern drove a wedge between himself and the rest of the team.

JARVIS broadcast a soft ping of warning as the numbers about the elevator door began to climb and Bucky looked around at his options. Sprawl on the sofa? Lean on the window? He quickly discounted that plan, he didn't want Steve to think that he was contemplating the height. He eventually settled into a perch on the kitchen island, not a seat that would be comfortable for long, which would make it clear to Steve that he had only just arrived to wait for him. The sofa might give the impression that he'd been lounging like an invalid all morning.

"Bucky!" Steve exclaimed before the doors had even finished opening. "I wasn't expecting - shouldn't you be resting?" He dropped his plain grey duffle by the elevator and strode into the room with a deep worry crease between his golden eyebrows.

Bucky shrugged and jumped down from the island. "Too much to do," he said lightly. "You tugged Tony away from fixing one of his little AI helpers to work on my stupid arm, I felt terrible so I've been helping to get him up and running again."

Steve's eyes widened and a familiar dumbfounded look plastered itself across his face. Bucky barely held back from rolling his eyes. Of course the thought that the engineer might have had other commitments hadn't even crossed his mind in the face of Bucky's injury. "He didn't mention it," Steve said defensively.

"He probably wouldn't have been able to get a word in edgeways, knowing you," Bucky said pointedly. He wanted to fold his arms but with only one the gesture was impossible so he settled for leaning back against the counter with his hand in his pocket to deliver his lecture. "When I managed to escape the nurses, I found him sleep deprived and starving. He's lost weight, Stevie, in just a few days. Circles so big under his eyes they looked bruised, and all he cared about was which of the four - fucking four - designs for a new arm I liked best. What the hell did you say to him to make him neglect himself like that? It's not like the arm is essential to me being alive." Steve opened his mouth to reply and Bucky nearly ripped the pocket of his cargos as he held up his hand to stop him talking." I'm not done. Clint. The man came and apologised for getting me out of pain, and I know your fat ass was behind it because neither of us thought there was anything to apologise for. I was damn grateful that he shot me, and he would have wanted me to do the same for him had the situation been reversed. You should have thanked him for his quick actions knocking me out, not read him the riot act for shooting me."

Bucly took a deep breath and nodded to let Steve know that the lecture was over, for now. The blond scuffed one boot against Tony's polished floor like a contrite schoolboy, his brow furrowed as he thought though what Bucky had said.

"I just... It was hard, not being here."

"That doesn't mean that you yell at the people who are here," Bucky channelled Sarah Rogers with all his might and was rewarded when Steve flushed and looked miserable.

"I'll apologise." Steve promised.

"Means nothing if you don't learn from it, and it seems, Steven Grant, that you've learnt piss all if you're still pulling the same shit you pulled with the Howlies in the fourties. I thought I'd lectured your fat head enough back then but it seems that I was wrong."

"I haven't been that bad!" Steve protested. Bucky raised a judgemental eyebrow in response, mostly to see him bristle like an angry labrador.

"From where I'm standing, you're worse." He sail flatly, shaking his head as Steve opened his mouth, obviously hurt. "You wouldn't want me to lie to you, would you?" he interrupted.

Steve settled back and bit his lip. "Of course not."

It was the gesture that Bucky had been waiting for, something that proved that what he'd said would be seriously considered by his best friend. Time to extend an olive branch, he decided. "Tony will probably have finished with my arm in a couple of hours. Actions speak louder than words, how about you sort out dinner for us all?" He suggested and Steve's eyes lit up.

"I can do that! I'll make chicken hotpot and apple pie. Tony once told me he liked pie."

Satisfied with the way that his lecture had gone, Bucky left Steve scrubbing his hands at the kitchen sink and went back down to the workshop. "JARVIS, would you let Clint know that Steve is cooking dinner tonight please? I assume he is still in the Tower."

"Agent Barton is in the gym, I will pass on your update."

"Ask him if he'd be up for a sparring session tomorrow, once I've got used to the new arm. I'll need to put it through its paces, and I think some of the new toys Tony is throwing in will help me get the drop on him. Don't tell him that part though."

"I wouldn't dream of it, sir," the AI said dryly.

*

Bucky was pleased to find Tony eating a sandwich when he returned to the lab, watching with a smile as FIX-IT and TAP-IT polished the finished arm together. He twisted round and raised an eyebrow as Bucky let the door fall closed behind him.

"How is the epitome of American virtue today? Did he freak out about the missing appendage?"

"He's cooking you dinner," Bucky revealed. "He's sorry for being an ass, and this is his way of showing you. You're likely to get a verbal apology as well."

Tony gaped like a goldfish for a few seconds, not seeming to notice that half of his sandwich filling was slipping out to fall onto his lap. "Did I break you?" Bucky asked after a moment.

"Maybe?" Tony managed after a moment. "I didn't know Capsicle could cook."

"He has a limited repertoire," Bucky grinned. "Are we ready to install this thing?"

"Uh, yeah, nearly," Tony confirmed. "I just wanted to clean off your shoulder in case any lint or similar has worked its way in there while the joint has been exposed.

"No problem," Bucky confirmed, hopping up onto the nearest reclining chair and turning his left side towards Tony. Having that shoulder socket looked at wasn't his favourite thing, sensations somewhat akin to those experienced during a dentist visit causing shivers up and down his spine, but he knew that it was a necessary evil and he didn't want Tony to stress about putting him through it.

He braced himself for the first hiss of compressed air, and jumped a little when he felt warm dry lips on the side of his neck instead. "Relax, handsome," Tony murmured against his neck. "I'll be as quick as I can."

True to his word, Tony cleaned out lint and dust with efficient sweeps and Bucky only had to suppress a few shudders before he was done. DUM-E rolled over with the new arm carefully grasped by the wrist in his claw.

"It's a bit lighter," Tony explained in between instructing DUM-E to hold the arm at the right height and U to shine a light where he needed it. "We did an x-ray while you were out and there was evidence of healed stress fractures, probably only under specific circumstances but still, not great so I made it lighter, which was easy because I am an awesome genius not a mad Nazi rat of a scientist. Higher DUM-E, c'mon, see where his shoulder is? That bit needs to go into - OK there you go, good boy."

"Does that mean I can dial back on the one handed push ups and chin ups?" Bucky asked hopefully as Tony made a few tiny adjustments with one of the smallest screwdrivers he had ever seen.

"Yeah, you should be able to. I thought the serum sorted all that out for you?"

Bucky was about to shrug but thought better of it. "To a certain extent yes, but the arm wasn't exactly what it was designed to cope with."

Toby nodded, brown eyes flicking up quickly to catch Bucky's own. "I'm about done, are you ready? Are you absolutely sure you don't want some kind of sedative? I know you said that you didn't, but I'm connecting nerves here and it's beautiful and I'm worried it will be supremely painful at the same time."

"I'm good," Bucky assured him. "I don't want any drugs meddling with my perceptions today. Just be sure to kiss it better after?"

"I promise," Tony said solemnly, reaching out to place a hand on the side of Bucky's neck. He used the other to guide DUM-E into place and took a deep breath. "Please don't punch me?"

"I wo-" Bucky bit off the word as Tony slid the new arm into place, causing a needling of nerve feedback that seemed to reverberate through his whole body, not just his shoulder. He gritted his teeth and ride out the sensation, barely aware of Tony's concerned face hovering with DUM-E and U whirring softly behind him.

Eventually the sensation faded and he was able to focus on Tony's face. The engineers worried expression melted into a cocky smile and Tony slowly leaned in to brush a butterfly kiss onto his shoulder, before pulling back just enough to press their lips together. "As promised," he murmured. "Ready to try it out?"

"Oh yeah."

"Take it slow," Tony warned as Bucky began to sit up.

The room stayed stable around him, so Bucky slid from the reclining chair and looked down at his shiny new appendage. This would usually be the point where he went through the routine calibration exercises, but the new arm didn't seem to need them, there was nothing pinching or sending strange feedback through the port. He reached out carefully to pat DUM-E on the head. "Thanks for helping out, you too U," he said, unable to suppress a grin as the arm responded perfectly.

"How does it feel?" Tony asked, pointedly returning his tools to the toolbox in an effort not to hover - usually a job for the robots.

"Feels perfect. So much better than the old one, I'm getting much better feedback from the finger sensors, and I can already tell that it's lighter," Bucky reported as he rolled a screwdriver between his hands.

"You should go take a shower," the engineer suggested. "Especially as there seems to be a family dinner in the offing."

"Care to join me?" Bucky grinned cheekily, posing just a little as Tony's eyes flicked over him, appreciating and assessing.

"Sirs, Captain Rogers would like to inform you that dinner will be in 45 minutes."

"Cockblocked by Captain America," Tony sighed. "Care to take a raincheck on that shower, sweetcheeks? It seems that we don't have time for a proper one."

"He always ruins my fun," Bucky grumbled just to make Tony laugh. "All right, let's head back to the tower? The bots can clear up this mess better than we can."

DUM-E immediately rushed to start industriously putting tools back into their relevant drawers, dropping several of them in his hurry. Hiding their smiles, Tony and Bucky made their way to the exit, Tony wincing slightly every time there was a loud clang from behind them.

"He'll slow down once we're gone," Bucky assured him. "He's just showing off."

"Like a proud toddler," Tony complained, but Bucky knew that he didn't really mind. DUM-E's ability to put tools away in the right places was something to be proud of after all, even if he did drop most of them.

"It is so nice to have two arms again." Bucky said happily, stretching both over his head and bending backwards to stretch out his spine. "I might have a bit of a workout once I've finished digesting. How about you?"

"J said something earlier about FIX-IT's new panels needing final review, so I was going to jump on that. If I clear through it this evening, JARVIS can get it fabricated overnight and we can have him back to normal by the weekend."

"Sounds good, I've missed him whizzing around my feet, tripping me up."

They went their separate ways to shower and change, and Bucky revelled in finally being able to properly wash his hair and dry his body without awkwardness. He had a new appreciation for the hardships that the disabled veterans that Sam often worked with faced every day.

Steve was setting the table when he entered the communal space, cheerful despite being covered in flour, and a deliciously familiar smell was emanating from the kitchen. The blond froze when he caught sight of Bucky, the jug of water in his hand tilting dangerously.

Bucky stepped forward to right it with his new hand, and grinned. "Back to being ambidextrous. Dinner smells good."

"You arm - I thought..." Steve tailed off, staring.

"You thought I'd just fix up that piece of Hydra crap?" Tony asked from behind him. "No way jose. That thing needed to be consigned to a museum with the rest of the medieval torture devices, clunky painful thing that it was. I have upgraded your bestie with my finest technology, he is Winter 2.0 now."

"It's way better," Bucky confirmed. "Plus I'm pretty sure I now have a small reserve of missiles in my bicep, and that's just awesome."

"And the emergency knife, can't forget that," Tony grinned, pulling out a chair. Steve was on him before he had a chance to sit down, wrapping him up in a bear hug and nearly spilling the jug of ice water he was still holding down Tony's pants.

Bucky discreetly rescued the jug and placed it on the table while they hugged it out.

"I'm sorry I was an ass," Steve apologised as Tony awkwardly patted his shoulder, looking at Bucky with a pleading 'help me' expression in his brown eyes. Bucky grinned and stole a dinner roll from the basket in the middle of the table.

"All forgotten Capsicle," Tony said, his grin fixed and a little manic.

"JARVIS, could you please tell Clint he's late for dinner?" Bucky asked.

"Certainly, Sargent Barnes," JARVIS replied primly.

As Bucky had planned, the interruption was enough to prompt Steve to let Tony go, his eyes suspiciously shiny.

"Dinner smells great," Tony said. "Do you need a hand dishing up?"

Steve raced back into the kitchen, yelling "No, I've got it!" over his shoulder as he went. Bucky and Tony exchanged amused glances as Bucky spread butter on half the roll and handed it to the engineer.

"JARVIS said I was late, I'm not late," Clint protested as he skidded out of the stairwell and took in the view before him. "The food isn't on the table yet."

"Sorry, we needed a diversion, Steve was in hug mode," Bucky explained and the other sniper dropped into the nearest seat with a grunt of acknowledgement.

"Fair enough."

"I heard that!" Steve protested, setting a steaming dish of chicken and dumplings in the centre of the table. He proceeded to ladle helpings onto everyone's plate, before pointedly holding the bowl of salad towards Clint.

The archer rolled his eyes, but took a small portion of salad to appease their leader. Bucky was pretty sure that most of it would still be on his plate at the end of the meal.

The food was better than he had expected and he reached over to pat Steve on the shoulder. "You did good."

"Yeah, Rogers, you've been holding out on us," Clint said with his mouth full. "You make a mean dumpling."

"Don't get your hopes up, I only cook about three things well," Steve shrugged. "Back when I had time to learn properly, both ingredients and equipment were scarce."

"Well, if it's something you enjoy doing, you should learn now," Tony suggested. "With all the help we're drumming up at the moment we could all be seeing a little more down time."

"That reminds me," Clint sighed, reaching for a roll. "If someone in a ridiculous red and black suit who cannot seem to stop dropping one liners shows up, please don't shoot him, he's agreed to be an ally."

Steve cocked his head to one side. "Got a picture?"

The archer grimaced. "You don't want to see his actual face, trust me. He mostly keeps the mask on, he has a lot of... Let's call it scarring. JARVIS, have you got any files for Deadpool or Wade Winston Wilson in the archives?"

"Just a moment, I'll check," JARVIS replied promptly, and after seven seconds a section of the wall lit up with images of a man in a red and black leather suit brandishing two katana on a bridge. Below those was a mugshot. Wade Wilson had sandy blond hair and sad eyes, although he was giving the camera a defiant smirk in the picture, a fluffy hooded parka pulled close around his neck.

"I thought you said he was scarred?" Bucky asked, turning back to Clint.

"He... Doesn't look like that any more," Clint shrugged. "Hence the mask, it's a new addition. He used to be this sort of bleeding heart mercenary, would take cases where teenage girls were getting stalked by creepers, that sort of thing."

Steve nodded slowly. "Ok, it's not like we don't all have colourful pasts," he said. "JARVIS, thank you."

"You're welcome," the AI responded as the images winked out.

Bucky grinned across the table at Tony, who was shredding the remains of his dumpling with his fork, a contemplative look on his face. Tony looked up and caught his eye, carefully smiling back.

"How's the arm feel?" the engineer asked.

"Better than new. Thank you, for getting it done so quick."

Tony shrugged and glanced away, a slight flush darkening his cheeks. "No problem, it was, ah, a good challenge."

"Need me to help with FIX-IT after dinner?"

Steve cleared his throat. "I thought we could watch a movie?"

Tony stared at him for a moment, and then back at Bucky, who quirked an eyebrow, images of snuggling up with the engineer on one of the many comfortable couches in front of the oversized TV trailing through his mind.

"It's just approving the final designs for fabrication, I can do it from the tablet," the engineer said slowly.

"Great! I'll make the popcorn," Clint declared. "What movie are we thinking? Want to rip apart a Bond film? How are you getting on with the list, Steve?"

Steve pulled his ever present notebook from his pocket and flicked through it. "Fight Club is next."

"Ooh, awesome," Tony grinned, suddenly looking more cheerful about the prospect of spending an evening outside of the lab. He stood and began to stack the plates. "Dessert first?"

"I made apple pie," Steve said, picking up the half empty salad bowl and the empty basket of rolls.

"Oh, because that's not cliché at all," Clint teased, heading into the kitchen with the lukewarm casserole dish.

On impulse, Bucky stepped around the table and brushed a light kiss across Tony's cheek. "Better than you expected?" he whispered.

"Only about a million times," Tony hissed back. "What the hell did you say to him? He's never been this nice to me."

"Steve can be an ass, but he does like you," Bucky said, brushing a finger across Tony's skin.

"Not the same way that you like me, I hope?" Tony quipped, his brown eyes crinkled with mirth as he lent into the touch.

"I hope not. That could be awkward." Bucky gave into the temptation to wrap his arm around Tony's shoulders, pulling the engineer close and enjoying the way that he moulded himself along Bucky's side. The others would be out of the kitchen at any moment, dishwasher loaded and leftovers stored safely away, but for this one warm moment it was just the two of them. Tony looked up, contentment in his eyes as he winked lazily.

"Shall we steal the best spot on the sofa before they come back?"

"Lead on."

As Bucky followed the engineer towards the oversized TV screen and its surrounding couches, he realised that he would happily follow him anywhere, and he wondered just when exactly his priorities had shifted from Steve to Tony. It took him only a second to decide that it didn't matter; the past was the past after all, and the future was sprawled across the central couch, smiling at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's the end! I hope you enjoyed this latest instalment in the Robot Army 'verse. I certainly enjoyed writing it.
> 
> If you like my style, please consider checking out [My Great Escape](https://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Great-Escape-Kirsty-Olliffe-ebook/dp/B01BDBD7U4/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=my+great+escape&qid=1555428771&s=gateway&sr=8-4) On Amazon. (No idea if that HTML coding will work...)
> 
> Thank you all for your support and feedback, this wouldn't have been finished without it. Internet Cookies all round!


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